Eleventh Hour
by Genevieve Kelly
Summary: Not long after the Avengers' battle with Loki, another enemy rises from Clint's past, threatening not only his own life, but the lives of everyone around him and he's willing to make the ultimate sacrifice in order to wipe his ledger clean.
1. Chapter 1

Eleventh Hour

Chapter One

About a week after the Avengers' big battle against Loki and the god's army, the Chitauri, both Tony and Pepper had left town on an extended vacation in order to try to recover and relax. As for the rest of the team, Bruce had once again decided to disappear from S.H.I.E.L.D.'s radar shortly after the fight in order to avoid any kind of conflict until he was absolutely needed. Steve remained in New York City, as did Clint and Natasha, in order to help clean up the city, as the battle had torn it apart. And Thor, as he had taken both Loki and the tesseract back home to Asgard, no one knew what he was up to.

Things, for the most part, were finally beginning to get back to normal, when two days ago, a large group of mercenaries had broken into one of Stark Enterprises' many companies in order to try to steal a new project Tony had developed and his employees had been working on building and manufacture. However, they took over one hundred of the employees hostage as the group were suddenly surrounded by dozens of S.H.I.E.L.D. agents before they were able to escape.

S.H.I.E.L.D. had eventually learned that the group had been based at a warehouse in New Mexico filled with weapons and technology that had once been owned by Stark Enterprises, back when Obadiah Stane was around as Tony's right hand. However, after his partner's betrayal and as he had recently gained a new outlook, Tony had given orders for all the weapons to be destroyed. What he didn't know was that before Obadiah's death, the man had made arrangements for many of the weapons to be stolen and hidden at their headquarters by these mercenaries, who were now in New York trying to obtain new Stark technology to add to their inventory.

Once the hostages had been taken, the S.H.I.E.L.D. agents backed down to try to come up with a strategy to take the mercenaries down without any of the hostages getting hurt. However, the private army was stronger than expected and so far they were able to keep the agents at bay. It was after no other alternative that Director Fury finally decided to make the call to the remaining members of the Avengers for help.

Fury's first call was to Steve, who was taught by Stark to use his new cell phone, and when the soldier answered, Fury spoke up quickly and to the point saying, "Captain, I'm afraid we're going to need your help once again. Sorry to have to cut your relaxation time short."

Steve replied, "Clint, Natasha, and I haven't exactly been relaxing much, but I have a feeling you already know that."

"Indeed I do and I am grateful for your work to help rebuild the city along with the rest of the men and women down there, but I've got a mission for the three of you and I'm afraid it's rather urgent," the director answered. "Are the others around at the moment or do I need to make a call to both of them as well?"

"Nah, they're here," Steve responded as he turned to face his new friends and gave them a signal that it was time to head back to their base. "We're on our way in."

After Steve hung up, Natasha spoke up as she said, "I was wondering how long it would take before Fury called us all in for our next mission."

Clint replied, "Apparently, not long."

"Are you sure you're up for this?" Natasha asked Clint as she turned to look at him and placed her hand gently on his shoulder, while they walked to their car. "I mean, I know that you haven't gotten hardly any sleep at all since your time spent working under Loki's power over you."

"I promise you, I'm fine, Nat," Clint answered solemnly. "The memories are coming back, but I have control over them as long as I'm awake. Besides, hawks don't sleep much anyway, remember?"

Clint walked on ahead of her and Steve in order to get out of the conversation, while Steve looked over at Natasha and asked, "Does he know that none of us blame him for what he did?"

The Black Widow responded, "Yeah, but unfortunately, it isn't enough. For as long as I've known him, Clint's always had a hard time getting over the mistakes he's made, whether they were his fault or not. Deep down, he's a sensitive guy, but he doesn't often show it. I don't know how to help him."

"He'll be all right with time," Steve said. "Who knows, maybe a new mission will do him some good."

"Maybe," she replied as she laughed. "Maybe it will do us all some good."

It wasn't long before the three of them were back at S.H.I.E.L.D.'s new base, which was hidden in an old, underground bunker that had been abandoned long ago. Once they walked in and took a seat at the table in one of the bunker's main rooms, Director Fury stood and began to brief the team on what was going on. Agent Hill stood nearby, as well as S.H.I.E.L.D.'s newest agent, Jeff Stanton, who had been brought in to take over for Coulson. None of the Avengers really cared for him much, nor did he care for any of them, but orders were orders.

Fury spoke up saying, "These mercenaries are still holding at least a hundred men and woman, if not more, and they're ordering us to let them go with the technology they came for in the first place, or they will kill all of their hostages. They've already killed some and the longer we delay, the more people will die. I need the three of you to go down there to take them out and save as many hostages as you can."

Steve asked, "Exactly how many mercenaries are we going up against?"

"They're a large group," Agent Hill answered. "We believe that there are at least forty men and women, all of them armed with serious weapons that were once made a long time ago by Stark."

"We believe that Stark has no recollection that these weapons even exist anymore, as we've learned that they had been stolen back when his now deceased partner, Obadiah Stane, was alive," Fury continued. "I've gotten in contact with Tony and briefed him on what was going on. Despite his annoyance of having his vacation cut short, he's on his way back now and will be here as soon as he can. He said to be sure to save some of the fun for him."

Clint responded, "Sounds simple enough. Forty against three; this may get interesting."

Steve retorted, "It will be four if and when Tony arrives, but we can't wait any longer. We'll have to do what we can until then. Let's go. Suit up."

Thirty-five minutes later, Captain America, Black Widow, and Hawkeye arrived to stand with the rest of the agents on the cliff overlooking the building where the mercenaries were holding the employees hostage. The Avengers had driven from the bunker in order to keep from giving themselves away, so that they would be able to have the element of surprise on their side when they made their first attack. As they looked down to observe the scene below, the three were told that the building was being well guarded.

"It looks like there are two men at the front entrance and at least two other guards by each way in or out," Hawkeye said. "I can easily take out the guards, but as soon as we get inside, we'll have no idea what we'll be dealing with. One gunshot and the rest of them will be on to us."

"And we'll be ready for them," Agent Stanton replied as he walked up from behind them. "We've got technology just above an infrared scanner that can tell us where they are located, but it may be a little difficult to tell a mercenary from a hostage."

Steve spoke up into his com saying, "Which is why the three of us will be the ones going in and not you guys; no offense. Director, exactly what kind of technology is these men and woman after?"

Nick Fury answered, "Stark invented and began manufacturing devices that with a push of a button can emit a force field around a person or object, much like the alloy that is Captain America's shield. These devices can be worn by our soldiers during a war, or placed all around a vehicle or building in order to create a force filed large enough to protect it."

"No wonder these thugs are after them," Natasha responded. "Either they could use this technology for themselves, or they could sell them for high profit to whoever does want it. We can't let it get into the wrong hands."

"Which is one of the reasons why I called you in," Fury replied. "Good luck!"

Steve replied, "Well, it's now or never. Let's move in. Hawkeye, it's all you."

Clint pulled up his bow, tethered two arrows, took aim, and fired them fast and far, hitting both guards on both ends of the balcony above the main entrance to the building, dead center to the chest. Both men went down quickly and silently, without alerting the two men directly below them on the ground. Swiftly and smoothly, Hawkeye was able to take out each guard around the perimeter of the building as he moved down to ground level from his original perch, without any of them getting the chance to make a sound.

Once he was finished, Steve walked up behind him and patted him on the back as he said, "Nice shooting! You're going to have to show me how you do that sometime."

"Sounds fun," Clint answered. "What's our next move?"

"We split up," the Captain responded. "Stanton, you better be sure to tell us what we need to know. Hawkeye, I want you to head up to the right wings of the building. Tasha, to the left. I'll head straight down the middle. Do whatever it takes to save as many hostages as you can and be careful."

Each of them walked the halls in their own directions, while looking for where the rest of the mercenaries were, as well as their hostages. It wasn't long until a fight between the three Avengers and the mercenaries broke out, when Captain America was the first to be seen. At first, the team had no problem taking the bad guys down, that is until the hostiles started to use the force field devices they had already managed to get their hands on. However, the soldiers were having trouble using them for long, as the devices were only prototypes. The power didn't last more than a few seconds at a time.

Hawkeye found the hostages being held in a large room toward the back end of the building with Stanton's help and fought through over a dozen soldiers to get to them, not only using his bow and arrows, but his fighting skills as well. As the guards were finally down, he helped them out through a doorway that led to a set of stairs in the back, where the rest of the S.H.I.E.L.D. agents were waiting for them on Hawkeye's instructions. Once he knew the men and women were safe, he headed back inside to find and help his friends.

Natasha fought her way through several soldiers herself. A few of them used the devices, but like Hawkeye, she didn't have much of a problem. However, as she was fighting off her two last soldiers she had run into, she found some kind of bomb attached to one of the building's posts in front of her.

Before knocking out her last attacker, Natasha knocked the man down to the ground and locked his head in between her legs as she growled, "How many bombs are there? What are they doing here?"

The man struggled in her grasp as he replied, "We were ordered… to place them around the entire building in… case things went wrong. As soon as you guys broke in here… to rescue the hostages, our boss set them… to go off in… now five minutes. We need to get out!"

"Captain, did you hear that?" Natasha called out through her com. "We need to get out of here! Hawkeye, can you read me?"

"I heard you, Tasha," Hawkeye answered. "I found the hostages and they're out. I'm on my way to you guys."

Steve came on over the com as well saying, "I read you guys loud and clear. Nice work. Just work your way to an exit. I'm already out. I had to take down these guys' leader after he tried to run."

Natasha responded, "I'm on my way out with a prisoner of my own."

Clint ran fast through the building to try to find Natasha in order to make sure that she got out all right, but as soon as he arrived into the lobby, the first bomb detonated, followed by a second, causing the entire building to start to come apart around him and just as he was about to make it to the stairway down to the front doors, a large beam from the ceiling collapsed down on top of him, pinning him down firmly to the floor.

When Natasha made it out of the building with her prisoner just before the first bomb blew, she ran over to where Steve stood over the leader of the mercenary group and handed the man she fought off to two of the agents, as Steve finally did the same. After doing so, they turned back to the building and waited for Hawkeye to make it out, but when he didn't come out seconds after the third blast blew in the back, they realized something was obviously wrong, especially when he didn't answer their calls over the coms.

"Hawkeye, answer me," Natasha called out. "Please, Clint. Come on. Answer me!"

"I'm going back in," Steve shouted as he ran back toward the building. "I'll find him, Tasha!"

As Steve made his way back inside, he tried to call out to his friend, but it was then that another bomb blew, causing the wall from behind him begin to collapse, until an arrow suddenly shot out from above him and blew the wall into pieces, crumbling it enough so that Steve was able to block the falling debris above using his shield. Hawkeye had saved his life.

As he looked up toward where the arrow had come from, he saw that Clint was on top of the stairs, trapped under a beam, but when he was about to rush up to help him, Clint called out, "Stop, you need to get out of here. This place is going to blow any second."

Suddenly from out of nowhere, Tony came flying in as he shouted out, "He's right, Captain. Get out of here now! I've got him!"

It was then that the final bomb blew and Tony dived over on top of Clint as the fire engulfed them. Before the fire could reach him, Steve ran as fast as he could out through the doors, clearing the building just in time before it collapsed and burst completely in flames. Natasha cried out Clint's name as she began to rush forward, but Steve grabbed a hold of her to keep her from running in.

She collapsed up against Steve in fear as she and Steve both believed that Clint and Tony were gone. They stared into the flames, when all of a sudden Tony came walking out, still fully suited in his armor, with Clint unconscious in his arms. Both of them were surrounded by a force field until Tony pushed a button on his arm, causing the field to collapse.

Natasha ran forward and pulled Clint into her arms, as Tony gently lay him down on the ground, then looked up at Steve's face and when he saw that he was looking for an explanation, he said, "I'm sorry I'm late. I had to stop by Stark Towers to pick up the only fully working force field device I had. I figured I'd need it. It appears I was right. I'm just glad I was in time. Hawkeye's hurt pretty badly, Miss. Romanoff, but he should be fine in a few days. What the heck did you guys do to my company?"

"You can blame those scumbags over there for this," Steve replied. "All we did was rescue the lives of all your employees. No big deal."

"Right, well, I suggest we get Stanton and the rest of S.H.I.. to do the clean-up, since we did all of the heavy work," Tony responded. "I'm trying to be on a vacation with Pepper."

"I think you're right," Steve answered. "It's about time the rest of us join you."


	2. Chapter 2

Eleventh Hour

Chapter Two

A few hours later, Steve and Tony were sitting alone in the room where they had both been debriefed by both Fury, as well as the council, whom Fury was forced to explain every one of his and his team's actions to. Needless to say, the talk didn't go well, despite the fact that the Avengers had once again saved numerous lives and brought down another threat. The council didn't like the Avengers and they didn't like that Director Fury constantly rejected their decisions, but they also couldn't fire Fury either, as they had their own orders not to.

As they sat there, both teammates were lost in thought, until Tony finally looked over at Steve, saw that something was bothering him, and asked, "You doing all right, Captain? This was hardly the hardest fight you've had in your life. I read your files from your days back during the war; very impressive. Not to mention the big one we had…"

Steve looked over at Tony as he interrupted, "You're right. This wasn't the biggest fight I've been in. Not by a long shot, but a friend got hurt and almost died tonight; again. If it weren't for you arriving when you did, Clint would be dead. He saved my life."

"Yeah, and I saved his," Tony replied. "This is what we do, Captain. We risk our lives to save as many people as we can, including each other. Are you going to react like this every time we get into a fight?"

"And how else do you expect me to react?" Steve asked as he was beginning to become annoyed with Tony's attitude. "Do you want me to appear cold and heartless like you?"

Tony answered, "Why don't you save it for when someone actually does die, like Coulson. That I understood and if you remember correctly, I reacted normally to his death. Maybe you ought to dry getting drunk. That also works for me."

Steve laughed as he responded, "I actually tried that once. I can't get drunk, thanks to my powered up metabolism."

"Well, that just sucks," Tony said when the door to the room suddenly opened as Natasha came walking in.

"How's he doing?" Steve asked her as he quickly stood from his seat, while she came over and took a seat of her own at the table.

Natasha looked over between Steve and Tony, then replied, "He's going to be all right, just like Tony said he would be. He's got a few broken ribs, as well as a fractured wrist, but he's fine and he's awake."

Steve answered, "Thank God. I'm sorry, Tasha. I didn't… I mean, I tried to…"

"Don't apologize, Captain," she responded as she cut him off. "I know that you did all you could and everything worked out."

"She's right," Tony said. "There was nothing more you could have done and we all know that. Quit fretting and be the Captain America we all know you to be; perfect and annoying."

They all laughed as she spoke up again as she asked, "So, how did the debriefing go with Fury and the council?"

Tony replied, "About as well as we expected. They hate us."

"They treated us like we were as bad as the mercenaries we brought down tonight," Steve added. "What did we ever do to them?"

"We're only just a group of freaks to them," Natasha answered. "That and we also defied their orders, making them look bad to whoever is over them. If I were them, I'd probably hate us too. Is the director in any trouble?"

Nick Fury walked into the room in time to respond, "No, I am not in any trouble, but that doesn't mean the council will back off any time soon. Our butts are still on the line. How's Hawkeye doing, Miss. Romanoff?"

She replied, "He's doing fine, Sir. He'll be ready for our next mission, whenever that is. I just wish that I could get him to sleep."

"He's still having trouble dealing with Loki's mind control?" Fury asked.

"We both know what it feels like to be on the wrong side, but this time, Clint was forced to do things against his will and it terrifies him that he may not be as changed as he thought he was," Natasha answered sadly. "He doesn't understand why he couldn't fight against the control harder, like Dr. Selvig did when he built the safety into the tesseract. I tried to tell him that he isn't the man he once was, but…"

Fury responded, "I knew that man, almost as well as you did and I know for a fact that he is not that man anymore, in any way."

"Dr. Selvig had a higher understanding of the power of the tesseract, not that I am calling Hawkeye an idiot, but his ability to manipulate its power enough to put in the safety came from that understanding," Tony said. "But in all fairness, he still built the dang portal in the first place and nearly killed us all; not that I blame him. If it weren't for my chest plate here, I would have been under Loki's control too and the battle probably would have ended very differently."

"Thank goodness for that," Steve replied as he turned to Natasha. "Do you think Clint's up to a visitor right now? I'd like to thank him for what he did tonight."

"I'm sure he'll appreciate it," she answered as he nodded, then turned and left the room.

Fury turned to Natasha and said, "Until Barton actually gets enough sleep to the point that I am satisfied, I am pulling him off of active duty. We cannot risk his lack of sleep affecting his actions on a mission."

Tony stood as he responded, "Speaking of sleep, I think I'm going home to go get some, or I will be nothing but irritable and miserable come morning."

"What's so different about that from how you are any other day?" Natasha replied jokingly as she and the director laughed.

"Very funny," Tony answered. "That's actually hilarious and I'm sure if Pepper were here, she'd laugh at that too. Good night, everyone. I'll see you tomorrow."

Within a few minutes, Steve made it through the hallways to Clint's room. However, when he knocked on the door and there was no an answer, Steve realized that the Hawk, as many of the scientists called him because of his bizarre way of spying on everything that went on around him from a height, wasn't in his room.

So, Steve walked around the bunker and when he finally spotted him, he saw that Clint was perched high on a ledge in a quiet room that overlooked one of the many labs where half a dozen scientists were busy working on some new project. Steve was about to call up to him until he realized that Clint had no idea he was standing there in the doorway, as the younger man was staring off at nothing, lost deep in his thoughts. Without being able to see his face, he could clearly see that Clint was upset and that he'd probably prefer to be left alone. Steve had no idea what he could possibly say to make him feel otherwise. So, he turned and left, leaving the man alone, as he tended to stay most of the time unless he was working.

The captain walked through the halls until he came to his own room, where he stripped back down into his civilian clothes, lay down on his bed, picked up a book, and began to read for a while, until he finally turned and shut off the light to go to bed for the night. As he lay there, he thought about that night's events and couldn't help, but wonder if there was anything he could have done differently. However, he knew he made the right calls and that everyone else, including Clint, knew it as well. It was soon after that realization that he fell asleep.


	3. Chapter 3

Eleventh Hour

Chapter Three

Once Clint was cleared to leave the medical wing by S.H.I.E.L.D.'s doctors after they had bandaged up his ribs and put a splint over his fractured wrist, he walked out and began to head back toward his room, until he turned a corner and saw a group of scientists walking toward him, carrying Loki's scepter between them. Clint backed up against the wall as the men and a woman passed by him.

Seeing the scepter again made his heart begin to pound in fear, but he pushed this feeling down and allowed his anger to rise as he shouted, "You need to destroy that thing, not run tests on it!"

They all looked back as the woman responded coldly, "We have our orders. Take it up with Director Fury, Barton."

When he saw the way the scientists looked at him as she spoke, Clint knew that they all still blamed him for his actions while under the Loki's power and he realized that there were probably many others that still blamed him too. He couldn't be angry at them for that. He still blamed himself.

Instead of walking away to go find Fury, Clint slowly followed after the scientists, sat down on a high ledge outside of the lab where they began to work, and stared off at them. This is where Steve had found him that night and Hawkeye had been unusually oblivious to the captain's presence.

The next morning, Natasha walked through the bunker to Clint's room, hoping to find him asleep and after he didn't answer the door when she knocked, she quietly walked in and found that he was not even there. She continued walking around until she finally found him uncomfortably asleep on one of his many perches, where he had obviously been since the night before.

As she slowly walked up the flight of stairs it took to get up there and got close, she could see from his face, that his sleep was troubled, as he was clearly stuck in some nightmare. She was almost afraid to wake him, but did so as a courtesy to get him out from the terror he was watching in his mind. However, when she gently laid her hand on his shoulder, his eyes burst open wide, as he suddenly grabbed her by the back of her neck and thrust a small dagger to her throat. Luckily, her instincts and skills were strong enough to catch his hand before he could hurt her. She saw deep fear in his eyes, as she knew that he was clearly not seeing her, but whoever it was he was dreaming about, no doubt it being Loki.

"Clint, take it easy, it's only me," Natasha whispered gently as she looked into his eyes in hopes of getting him to look back at her. "You need to wake up."

"Nat?" he asked quietly as he looked back into her piercing eyes, while he slowly regained his sense of his surroundings and lowered his weapon. "What…?"

She carefully helped him up as she answered, "I came looking for you in your room, but found you asleep up here instead. You were having another nightmare again. Are you all right?"

He shook his head angrily as he pushed passed her and began to walk quickly back down the stairs, while she followed after him, and he replied, "I almost just killed you. How do you think I am? I'm sorry, Tasha. I'm so…"

"You cannot blame yourself for what you're going through, Clint," she responded firmly.

"Then, who am I supposed to blame?" he asked angrily as he turned back to look at her again once they left the room. "Loki? Because if you hadn't noticed, he's no longer here and I'm still seeing him. I can't do this anymore, Nat. He's destroyed everything that I've worked so hard to become, but I'm not strong enough. I never was. I'm leaving, for good."

She tried calling out to him as he turned away from her once again and stormed off down the hallway. As he did, he roughly bumped into Steve and continued going on without saying a word. Steve was about to call out to him until Natasha came around the corner and stopped him. He could see from the worry on her face that something bad had just happened between her Clint.

He looked at her and asked, "What's going on? Are you guys all right?"

Natasha answered sadly, "No, we're not all right. Clint's leaving."

"I just saw him last night," he replied as he looked toward the way Clint had run, then back at her. "He seemed troubled, but calm. What happened?"

"I found him asleep this morning up on a ledge overlooking one of the labs," she responded. "I saw that he was stuck in one of his nightmares and I tried to wake him up, but when he did, he… he attacked me."

Steve looked at her in shock and asked, "What do you mean, he attacked you?"

She answered, "He was seeing Loki, not me. Clint believes that that monster's destroyed everything that's good in him."

"Tasha, I'm so sorry," Steve replied. "What can I do?"

"I'm not sure that there's anything we can do," she responded. "If I can't convince him he's wrong, then…Go and speak with Fury. Tell him what's going on and that I'll explain later. I've got to try to convince him to stay, one more time."

With that said, she took off in the same direction Clint had gone, as Steve watched as she disappeared. Then, he walked quickly toward the main room where he suspected their director to be, but when he got there, he found Tony and to his surprise, Bruce was there as well, who all turned and looked at him as he came rushing into the room.

Fury was the first to speak as he said, "Good morning, Captain. Is there something wrong other than the news I just heard from Dr. Banner, here?"

Steve looked between his friends and then turned to look at the director as he answered, "I'm afraid that Barton's leaving us for good, Sir. Unless of course Natasha can stop him, but he was pretty shaken up when he passed me in the hallway this morning and she doesn't think there's anything she can say to convince him to stay."

"What happened?" Bruce asked. "He appeared to have come to terms with what happened to him when I left."

"His nightmares got to the better of him this morning and he attacked Natasha, thinking she was Loki, when she tried to wake him," Steve replied.

Tony responded with a snide remark, "I guess that'll teach Miss. Romanoff not to sneak up on someone when they're dreaming."

Steve looked at Tony angrily and shouted, "There's nothing funny about this, Mr. Stark. Clint is our friend and he's in trouble."

"Just relax there, Cowboy," Tony answered as he put up his hands in defense. "I didn't mean anything by that. Barton's a good man and a friend of mine too."

"But unfortunately, we do not have time to deal with a personal issue right now as Dr. Banner here, has brought to our attention that there's been a break in at a lab down in Texas, where several canisters of the same gamma chemicals used to create the Hulk has been stolen by unknown adversaries," Director Fury said solemnly. "Your next mission is to go down there, find out who took the canisters, bring them down, and get that toxic filth back before these idiots use them to wreak havoc in our country again. Is that understood?"

Steve, Bruce, and Tony all stood and headed toward the door as they all replied, "Yes, Sir."

Fury responded, "Good, now I'll go and find Agent Romanoff and tell her she's needed. She'll have to deal with Agent Barton after this mission."

"She won't like it, Sir, but understood," Steve answered.

By the time Natasha caught up with Clint, he was down in the bunker's garage, getting prepared to take off on his bike with one duffle bag on his back, no doubt filled with some clothes, as well as his bow and arrows. She ran up to him as she called out his name and he stopped what he was doing, but he didn't turn to look at her.

"Clint, please," she pleaded. "You don't have to do this. You're a good man. You saved my life when you were given orders to kill me. You are stronger than anyone I know. Why do you think that I have complete trust in you?"

He turned his head toward her direction, but still did not look at her as he replied, "Your trust is misplaced. Tell Director Fury that he needs to stop running tests on Loki's scepter and destroy it, or it's going to cause him more problems. Trust me, that thing's too dangerous to keep around."

She called out to him as he started up the bike asking, "Is that what started all of this?"

"I'm sorry, Nat," he replied sadly. "Take care of yourself. Good bye."

She sadly watched Hawkeye drive off and then allowed herself to become angry as she left the garage to go back in and find their director in order to confront him about his decision to take out the scepter for testing. She now understood why his mood changed so drastically since she had seen him the night before. She wanted him back. She needed him back, as he was the only one, who understood her at all.


	4. Chapter 4

Eleventh Hour

Chapter Four

When Fury finally found his agent, who had been running through the bunker in search of him as well, Natasha stormed up to him and asked angrily, "How on earth can you possibly think it's okay to have our scientists run tests on Loki's scepter, Director? That thing needs to be destroyed!"

Fury put his arms up in defense and answered, "I could not agree with you more, Agent Romanoff. Unfortunately for me, I cannot make that call, as was by the council's orders to have our scientists run the tests. Those scientists work for them, not for me."

"That scepter is what turned Clint against us in the first place and it is still working to obliterate all the good that he's done, even though it is no longer in control of him," Natasha replied. "It scares him, Sir, because it briefly turned him into what he fears most; a murderer and he can't accept that that dark side of him is not who he is. That's why he's run away, to protect us."

"Believe me, I understand your point and I promise, I will do all I can to help you to bring him back, but unfortunately, something of more urgency has come to our attention and I need you to join the others for your new mission," Director Fury responded. "It will take everyone."

Natasha nodded and asked, "Are they down in the hanger bay?"

Fury answered, "Yes, and they're waiting for you. I'll try to keep track of Agent Barton's whereabouts while you're gone, but you know that he can disappear if he wants to."

"I'll always find him," she replied. "Just do whatever you can to get rid of that scepter once and for all, or it will give you more problems to deal with right here. Clint's certain of it."

"Understood," he responded as she turned and left the room to meet up with her newfound friends.

After she did so, Agent Hill walked in and asked, "What are you going to do, Sir?"

Fury turned to her and answered, "You heard all of that, did you?"

"Yes, Sir," Hill replied. "I did. Do you really believe that the scepter can still hurt us even though Loki is no longer here to control it?"

"It appears that it can, Agent Hill," the director responded. "We just lost Agent Barton because of it and Loki is worlds away."

She looked at him in disbelief as she said, "Yes, but Barton has always been a loose cannon, as has Agent Romanoff. I agree that he is a good man, but he left by his own choice, not because the scepter made him. Do you really believe that it is a good idea to aggravate the council because of their decision about what to do with the scepter, when you are already on their radar?"

Fury turned his back to her and answered, "What if our fear of it isn't the only thing that can cause us problems, Maria? What if a mishap happens while the scientists run their tests? What if an enemy gets his or her hands on it and uses it to hurt us all over again? What if Loki himself can find a way to use it against us? They are after all, connected somehow. These are all very real possibilities and I am not willing to allow it to happen again. Now, inform me when our team has left the hanger. If anyone has any questions, you are in charge until I return. I'm going to go have a chat with the council."

Agent Hill nodded and he turned to leave the room as she replied, "Yes, Sir."

Meanwhile, in Asgard…

Loki sat on the floor of his prison cell in a deep trance as he concentrated on something that was unknown to his observers, who stood on the outside. They were Thor, as well as his mother. Ever since he had returned to his home with Loki as his prisoner, not as his brother, Thor had been angry, as he blamed himself for what had happened on Earth because of him. Despite his mother's and father's assurances that what Loki had done was not his fault, he could not push the guilt aside.

As Thor stared at Loki in anger, his mother, Frigga, spoke up softly saying, "The monster inside this prison cell is not your brother, Thor. Your brother died long ago when he discovered the truth of his heritage. It was a mistake for your father and I to keep that a secret from the both of you. If we hadn't, Loki may still be with us."

Thor turned to look down at her as he asked, "Has father decided his punishment yet? I know he is no longer my brother, nor do I still think of him that way. Not after all the pain he has caused the people I care about down on Earth. He must pay!"

"Of all the people I thought to have a hard time with that truth, I would have thought it be you," Frigga responded. "You loved him."

"I did, but as you said, mother, he died long ago," Thor answered as he continued to stare at Loki, until he saw Loki begin to smile as he slowly awoke from his trance.

Loki looked up at Thor as the god, who was once his brother, stormed up to the force surrounding him and said, "It appears that your precious victory is not as much of a victory as you thought, Brother, nor my total defeat."

Thor angrily replied, "You are not my brother. What have you done, Loki?"

"I have not done anything, Thor," Loki responded callously. "I didn't have to. You should have taken the scepter with us when we left Earth as well. For it has already begun to unravel the band of misfits that you and your newfound friends call the Avengers. As long as it remains with S.H.I.E.L.D., I can see and hear everything that surrounds it and I am afraid that my scepter's effects have become too much for the friend you call, Hawkeye, or Agent Barton. In time, its power will cause more trouble for the rest of them as well."

"You will soon pay for your crimes against Asgard, as well as against the Earth, Loki, and believe me when I say that you will not die with the knowledge that you had some small victory amongst your defeat," Thor said angrily as he then turned to his mother. "I must go back to Earth to find the scepter and protect my friends against what it has done, or what it will do."

Frigga nodded as she answered, "Then, we must go and speak with your father."

As they began to walk away, Loki sneered evilly as he shouted back, "The damage has already been done! You cannot stop the pain, even if you do find the scepter. You are too late!"


	5. Chapter 5

Eleventh Hour

Chapter Five

Once the Quinjet touched down outside the lab from which the canisters were stolen in Texas, Steve, Bruce, Natasha, Tony, and Agent Stanton all stepped out and began to slowly walk through the building, as it has clearly been abandoned, not only by the thieves, but also by the men and women, who worked there.

During the flight there, Bruce had spent most of the time explaining in great detail to Tony, the gamma chemical process of his experiments, as well as about the accident that made him become the hulk, in order to explain to him why it was imperative that they retrieve the stolen canisters as soon as possible, so that whoever it was that stole them, will not be able to use the chemicals to create more monsters.

Steve tried to concentrate on what the doctor was saying, but eventually it became too technical for him and once Banner and Tony got into the conversation, it became difficult for Steve to slow them down. So instead, he tuned out and looked toward Natasha, who appeared to be in her own thoughts and Steve had a pretty good idea what they were. As for Stanton, he listened to Bruce's and Tony's conversation very closely, as he remained silent.

As the team entered into the building, fully prepared for a fight should one arise, Tony looked back toward Agent Stanton and asked, "So, what exactly are you doing here? You aren't a member of the Avengers and I have a feeling that Fury didn't ask you to come to keep an eye on us."

Stanton answered, "I came here to observe you guys in action. I want to get to know, who it is I am dealing with, like Coulson did."

"You're hoping to find a reason to report back to Fury that we are too dangerous to be let loose to defend our world," Tony responded sarcastically, yet adamantly. "We know you don't have a high regard for us, even Captain Stars and Stripes here, but Phil did and his opinion was enough for the director."

"You may have saved our planet from an alien invasion once, but none of you are all that different from Loki, as each of you has your own troubled pasts," Stanton replied. "When I read up on all of you, I learned that most of you don't really have the right to be called heroes. You, for example, Mr. Stark, are an egotistical, self obsessed genius, who makes a joke out of everything, even when times are serious. Dr. Banner here has a very dangerous and unstable Jekyll and Hyde complex, and as for Miss. Romanoff, she has a very bloody past. Agent Barton was given the order to kill her, but defiantly chose to disobey. He is no better."

Natasha spoke up angrily for the first time saying, "I am not sure what Agent Barton saw in me, but since then, I have done all I can to prove to him he was right to make that call; to repay my debt to him. Clint and the rest of this team have our share of problems and we may not do things the way you would have us do them, but we fight for the good that is in this world and will die to do so."

Tony spoke up again as he said, "Excellent speech, Miss. Romanoff. And she's right, Stanton. I don't understand how you can't see that after our big fight with Loki, but one day you will. That is, if you stick with us long enough."

"I hate to break up our little pow wow, but we need to get back in the search," Bruce interrupted. "There has to be some kind of clue that will let us know who these guys are."

"How about we take a look at the video cameras?" Steve asked as he looked up above them at the walls. "There's a red light blinking. That means it's working, right?"

Tony answered, "Huh, good call, Captain."

Tony spoke into his com to his computer system, JARVIS, asking him to pull up the camera's footage at the time of the break in as a hologram for him and the others to be able to watch clearly. When the footage came up, they all watched as the typical types of thieves, all wearing black and ski masks over their faces, ran in and out of the building carrying over a dozen crates, obviously filled with the stolen canisters and perhaps more.

What the teammates didn't expect to see was a midget appear, followed by what appeared to be two acrobats flipping and cart wheeling around as they all searched around the multiple crates in search for whatever else they were looking for, then worked to shuffle out all of the men and women that worked in the lab. The very last bit of the footage showed them their biggest shock of all, when a man carrying a sword, dressed in full body armor and a metal helmet, appeared below the camera and look directly up into it, then wave as he grinned.

Bruce spoke up as he said, "It looks like the circus is in town. Whoever this guy and his thugs are, they are clearly not afraid of being caught."

"What I want to know is, where are the scientists who work here?" Natasha asked. "Do you think they kidnapped them all to get them to help them with the chemicals for whatever it is they have planned for it?"

"I do," Tony responded. "You would think that with a costume and thugs like that, they wouldn't be too hard to find."

Steve replied, "Perhaps we should try looking around at any circuses that are in town. Who else would dress and move like that?"

Tony spoke up again saying, "Once again, good call, Captain. We should go."

Just then, thunder roared through the sky above the lab, followed by several cracks of lightning. When the Avengers ran outside to find out what was going on, Thor suddenly burst through the storm and landed hard on the ground. When he rose up, he looked between his friends and smiled, but the smile faded quickly as he walked over to them. They could see from his face that he wasn't back on Earth for a friendly visit.

"It's good to see you again so soon, Thor, but I take it you didn't come here for a social call?" Bruce asked as he stretched out his hand for a shake. "Please tell us that Loki did not escape from you? We are all still trying to recover from our last fight."

"No, Loki is still imprisoned and will soon pay for his crimes, but I am afraid that I did not come here with good tidings either," Thor answered. "How is Agent Barton?"

Natasha stepped forward as she asked fearfully, "What do you mean, how is he? How did you know that something was wrong with him?"

Thor looked over at her as he responded, "I am afraid that Loki, though he is of no physical threat to you, he still has a connection to his scepter, which remains behind at your headquarters."

"What kind of connection does he have to it?" Steve asked.

"When Loki allows himself to concentrate, he can see and hear everything that is happening around the scepter," Thor replied. "He told me that the scepter's effects have become too much for Barton. What has happened to him?"

Natasha answered, "Clint's been suffering nightmares from the terrible things Loki made him do under his power and he cannot believe he wasn't at fault. Ever since he saw the scepter come out for testing by our scientists, he became terrified that he will hurt us if he stayed, so he left. If we cannot help him, I don't know what will happen to him."

Thor bowed his head and responded, "I am sorry. I have come to collect the scepter to bring it back home with me, to Asgard, before it can cause more harm. Loki claims it will do so."

"You should have taken it in the first place," Natasha replied angrily.

"Natasha, this is not Thor's fault," Steve said as he stepped forward and gently placed his hand on her shoulder to try to calm her down. "We have a lot to do, but I promise we will help Clint too. We will make things right, but put the blame where it belongs; on Loki. Thor, go to our headquarters and do whatever it takes to get that scepter back. Even destroy it if you have to. I have a feeling that Director Fury will not argue with you."


	6. Chapter 6

Eleventh Hour

Chapter Six

With the power from his hammer, Thor flew rapidly through the stormy skies and finally landed outside of S.H.I.E.L.D.'s headquarters back in New York, where several agents became stunned to find the god standing before them, but stood their ground and lowered their weapons when they recognized him to be a member of the Avengers.

When Thor followed two of the agents inside the bunker, Director Fury walked out to meet him as he said, "Well, well, well. I didn't expect to see you back in our world so soon. The captain called and told us you'd be coming. The council members won't be happy that you're here to take back the scepter from us."

Thor replied, "I do not care if they are mad. I came here to protect my friends from an unknown power, which has already caused more than enough harm. Did Rogers explain that Loki knows all that is going on here?"

"Yes, he did, which is why I have no problem with you busting here to steal back the scepter, I wish you had taken home with you in the beginning," Fury answered as they began to walk through the bunker's corridors toward the room where the scientists had begun their experiments on the scepter the night before. "I don't like that that monster can spy on us anytime he wishes to."

"Do not worry," Thor responded. "He will not be able to any longer."

However, when the god and the director reached the lab, they found most of the men and women were unconscious on the ground and that the lab had been turned upside down, as Fury quickly called out, "We've got a security breach! I need all personnel alert and searching for whoever is carrying the scepter. Stop them in any way that you have to. Do not let them leave this base."

Thor ran over to help one of the scientists up from the floor as she came to and he asked, "What happened here? Where is the scepter?"

"Dr. Livingston," she began. "He picked up the scepter and used it to fight us so that he could escape. What's going on?"

"Was Dr. Livingston possessed?" Fury asked angrily. "Did something happen when you all were working on it?"

Another scientist replied, "No, he was himself. He received a call on his phone and as soon as he hung up, he struck me over the head and picked it up. That's when he did all of this."

Before Fury could reply, one of his agents called out over his com as he said, "I'm sorry, Sir. We tried to catch him, but he escaped. Another scientist and one of our agents helped him out. They're gone."

"I want you to track them down!" Fury yelled. "Do you hear me, Agent Hill? Send out as many agents as we've got and find that scepter. I want those men in handcuffs and locked in a prison cell before night fall."

"Understood, Sir," Maria answered. "I'm on it."

Thor walked over and stood beside Fury as he responded, "I can do what I can to track down the scepter's power, but I may need help from someone besides your agents, as I do not know who of your men I can trust, or who hired your men to steal it from you. It could not have possibly been done with Loki's influence."

Fury replied, "Unfortunately, the rest of your team are busy with another matter of just as much of importance. The only one left is Hawkeye, although he is no longer with us. It won't be easy, but I don't suppose you'd be up to trying to convince him to help you? You could use a man with his skills."

"You want me to do what you and the others could not?" Thor asked sarcastically.

"If anyone would want to make sure that Loki or his scepter cannot cause anymore harm, it would be Agent Barton," Fury answered. "However finding him might be just as difficult."

Thor began to walk toward the bunker's exit as he responded, "Then I suppose I better begin my search. I will be in touch."

Fury shouted after him, "Good luck! You'll need it!"

Three nights later…

Clint sat down at the end of a bar alone with a glass filled with some kind of liquor in his hand. He wasn't sure what it was, but when he had walked in and softly spoke to the bartender, he had asked the woman for something strong and didn't question what it was when she sat it down in front of him. However, he had been there for over a half hour and he still hadn't even taken a sip, as he was lost deep in thought. Instead he only twirled the glass around in his hand. The bartender had tried to flirt with him, but Clint only ignored her until she finally gave up and walked over to flirt with a couple of other guys at the opposite end of the bar.

Things seemed fairly quiet inside and outside of the bar, as Clint had arrived in a small town down in West Virginia, but as it grew later into the night, some of the men at one of the tables began to grow rowdy and began to pick on the waitress, who had taken care of them. It wasn't until the men got out of control and he saw that no one was going to stop them, did Clint stand up and interfere before the woman got hurt.

The agent took a beer bottle from behind the bar and suddenly smashed it over one of the thugs' head in order to draw the other five's attentions onto himself, as the woman ducked out and moved back to stand with the bartender on the side of the bar. When Clint managed to knock down two more, the two men sitting at the bar quickly jumped up and joined the thugs against the stranger.

The thugs laughed as they had Clint surrounded and well outnumbered, but as they moved in to attack, Clint fought them off with amazing skills and speed, eventually using one off the bar stools as a weapon against them. Within a few minutes, all of the men, but one, were on the ground writhing in pain. The leader of the group, as well as the bartender and the waitress only stared at him in shock at what he had done, as Clint pulled out a couple of bills from his back pocket and tossed the money down on the counter near the women.

Two of the local police officers walked in as he did this, then Clint finally spoke up as he said, "This should be enough for the repairs. Good night ladies; gentlemen. I suggest you make sure these scumbags go to prison for their disturbance and assault."

With that, Clint walked out and back over to where he had parked his bike and he was about to get on and drive away, until a voice spoke up from behind him saying, "That was a pretty impressive fight you just won in there, but then again, I was the one, who taught you those moves. I must say that I never thought I'd ever see you again, seeing as the last time I did, I thought I had killed you."

"Jacques Duquesne?" Clint replied with alarm in his tone as he slowly turned and stared at the man from back in his dark past.

"Hello again, Clint," the man answered as he grinned frightfully. "Or should I call you, Hawkeye?"


	7. Chapter 7

Eleventh Hour

Chapter Seven

Clint glared at the man from his past as he ignored the jab and asked, "What are you doing here, Jacques? I know you haven't been following. Believe me, I would know. You're just as surprised to see me, as I am to see you."

Jacques nodded and responded, "You're right. I haven't been following you. As I said, I thought you were dead, but I see that you clearly haven't lost your skills. What exactly have you been up to that allows you to keep it all up?"

"Nothing that I'm ever going to tell you about," Clint answered as he pulled his bag he had brought with him from when he left the bunker around his head and secured it around his back. "It doesn't matter anymore anyway. I'm done. And I'm no longer Hawkeye to anyone except for a few people. You're not one of them."

"Very well," the man replied as he pulled out a gun and aimed it at Clint's head. "I could kill you if I wanted to. I should kill you after you betrayed me, but instead, I'm going to offer you a choice. Come back to work for me again. If you do a good job, I can promote you to be my partner as you should have been all along."

Clint scoffed as he said, "I think you already know my answer. I'm certainly no saint or hero, but I'm not a thief or a killer either. I won't help you ever again."

Jacques asked, "Do you want me to kill you? I am giving you another chance to live. Only a fool would pass me up on this a second time. Are you going to prove your brother right?"

"You leave Barney out of this," Clint responded firmly as he slowly pulled his small dagger from his back pocket, unbeknownst to the man in front of him. "He has nothing to do with us."

"From what I hear, your brother was working for another criminal by the name of Marko and was later seriously wounded by a group of raiders," Jacques continued. "I'm not really sure what happened to him after that. Have you heard from him at all?"

As soon as Jacques asked this, Clint suddenly pitched the dagger at the man with great speed and accuracy, causing it to become imbedded in his right shoulder, just below his neck, and then took off running quickly down the alley, while Jacques fired his gun wildly in attempt to stop him. However, Clint climbed up a fire escape on one of the buildings nearby and raced across the rooftops, as several more of Jacques' men appeared and began to fire upon him as well.

As he ran, Clint worked to pull out his bow and quiver full of his arrows and once he set his quiver to change an arrow into a grappling hook, he shot the arrow high, as it struck into a ledge of a much taller office building several feet in front of him. Then, he swung across using his bow to hold onto and crashed hard through a window. Just like the last time he pulled a stunt like that, back during his and the Avengers' big fight with the Chitauri, it hurt, but he quickly pushed the pain down and kept running hard and fast, eventually escaping from the men chasing after him, as he fired several more arrows along the way.

A part of him just wanted to keep on running, as he was desperately trying to get away from everything that he knew, but his instincts kicked in and his conscience was screaming at him to go after Jacques, as he knew that whatever the man below him on the ground was doing here, it wasn't good. Besides, the man, who had once been his mentor and his friend, had left him for dead on their last encounter. The other part of him wanted to make him pay and maybe by taking Jacques down, it would help to eliminate a small part of the pain, anger, and fear he felt from the horrible things Loki had made him do under his power.

Back down on the ground, as Jacques' men had finished chasing after Hawkeye, they all gathered together again as their leader was being patched up, due to the dagger wound in his shoulder. The man was angry he had allowed Clint to get the drop on him and became even angrier when his men finally came back with the news that he had managed to escape from them.

Jacques shouted, "How did he manage to get away from over ten men? I know he is an excellent warrior, but how can you all be so incompetent?"

One of the men answered, "Barton had a special kind of bow and arrows. He used them to swing over to one of the taller buildings and then crashed through a window."

"He shot a few different kinds of arrows at us; some that were normal and even some that blew up," another guy added. "He was too much for us."

"Well, well, well, it appears that Hawkeye has either become more skilled than I ever expected he would, or he has found someone to supply him the impressive weaponry," Jacques replied. "It's possible that Barton may even work for S.H.I.E.L.D., as they make and use technology and weaponry just like it."

As one of his men finished patching up the wound the best that he could, he asked, "What would you like us to do, Sir? Shall we go after Barton, or would you like us to continue on with our initial plans?"

Jacques turned to the man and responded, "Clint is already long gone by now. I want him dead more than anything, but right now, our priority is finishing the jobs we've set out to do. Besides, our friends should be arriving any moment now with our newly acquired weapon that will help us to complete our final task."

From the rooftop of the building he had crashed into, Clint stood and observed Jacques and his men down below him. He could see that he had managed to make his old enemy very angry. Clint couldn't help but smile as they all appeared to be scrambling around. However, his smile quickly faded as a car suddenly drove up and parked down an alley nearby where his fight with Jacques and his men began.

Nothing was alarming to him, until Clint recognized the three men, who stepped out from the car, as one of S.H.I.E.L.D.'s agents and two of the scientists, whom he had observed working on Loki's scepter three nights ago. Fear suddenly struck him hard as he watched the scientists pull the scepter from out of the car and hand the weapon over to Jacques, who took it eagerly, and then used it to blast a large hole through the wall of the bar that he had sat in quietly not long before, in order to test it out.

Clint helplessly looked on in dread and pain, as the blast was so powerful that it caused the bar to suddenly burst up into flames, with the waitress, the bartender, the police officers, and the men he had attacked to protect the women, all still inside. He prayed that they had all gotten out as he was busy fighting against Jacques' men, but his gut told him that they hadn't and now there were more lives destroyed because of him.


	8. Chapter 8

Eleventh Hour

Chapter Eight

Over the last three days, Steve, Tony, Bruce, and Natasha had gone to several different circuses throughout the country, beginning with the one that was currently in the same city in Texas, where the canisters had gone missing. However, they were having no luck in finding the right group, who had stolen the gamma chemicals. All of them had acrobats, but only a few of them had midgets, who were a part of the show, and none of them featured a man dressed in full, old fashioned body armor.

Nick Fury had contacted the Avengers shortly after the scepter had been stolen from them and informed them that Thor had gone to track down Hawkeye so that the archer could help the god to find it. Natasha wanted to go off and join Thor in his search, mainly for Clint, but Fury ordered her to remain with the others as they continued to search for the men with the canisters. She didn't object again.

"This is pointless," Tony said in frustration as he and the others, all dressed down in their regular clothes, walked into a diner up in Savage, Minnesota.

"What's pointless?" Bruce asked as he finally looked up from his computer that he had been staring at for some time now. "Do you mean eating? I know better than you how important it is that we get the chemicals back before my poison can be used to create more of, well, me, but we do need to eat too."

Tony looked oddly at Bruce and then responded, "No, I mean that it is pointless to continue to walk into every single circus in the entire country. Do you have any idea how many there actually are?"

JARVIS spoke up as it answered, "There are nine thousand, seven hundred, and eighty-three fully functioning circuses throughout the United States."

"Thank you, JARVIS," Tony replied as he rolled his eyes, then turned back to his teammates. "That question was meant to be rhetorical, but nevertheless, he's right. Not to mention the number of small time carnivals or fairs around the country. There is no way we can search that many. Plus, it would take way too long. The world could end before we do."

"I hate to say it, but Stark's right," Steve responded as he looked over at the others.

Tony caught the captain's snide remark and retorted, "Well, thank you very much, Blue Boy. You know, you really are getting better at dishing out the sarcastic comments."

Steve smiled as he said, "It's because I've been hanging around you way too much."

"I'm very proud," Tony answered as he took a bite of the food that had just been placed in front of him by a waiter. "My influence is finally rubbing off on you. What do you say we…"

"Guys, can we please focus on the task at hand!" Natasha interrupted with an exasperated tone before they could get into an argument.

The three men turned to look at her as Tony replied, "Agent Romanoff, you've been on edge and very irritable this entire trip. Please, feel free to talk to us about what it is that's troubling you before you go all deadly assassin on us. This wouldn't have something to do with Agent Barton, does it?"

She responded with frustration in her voice, "No, of course not. I just want to get on with this mission, then get back to headquarters."

"That isn't exactly true now, is it?" Tony continued to berate her. "You're worried about him and would rather be out there looking for him, then be stuck here with us. You love him, don't you?"

"I'm Russian," she answered quickly. "I don't believe in love. I wasn't trained to love."

Steve looked into her eyes and replied, "Forgive me for butting in, Tasha, but a person isn't trained to fall in love with someone. You just do. And it's all right to be in love, wonderful even."

Bruce added, "Steve's right, Natasha. Even the Hulk's been in love."

"What I feel isn't important to this mission," Natasha responded angrily as she stood from her chair. "I suggest the three of you focus and come up with a plan as you eat your food. I'm going for a walk. Call me when you're done."

"Wow, I didn't think she had much feeling besides that anger we just saw," Tony spoke up as she rushed out of the diner and took off. "I think I may have pushed it a little too far, didn't I?"

Steve answered, "Yes, but it isn't like we didn't add to it."

Tony replied, "The two of them just need to man up and admit how they feel for each other, and maybe she wouldn't always be so angry or bitter. I told Pepper how I feel for her and even though I'm a pain in the butt to deal with and to clean up after, she has never been happier."

"Uh, guys?" Bruce spoke up softly as he continued to stare at his computer screen.

"Are you sure that that's the reason why Miss. Potts is so happy?" Steve asked as he and Tony both seemed not to have heard the doctor call out to them.

Bruce tried again a little louder as he said, "Guys, I found something that you're going to want to see."

Tony responded to Steve as they both still ignored Bruce's interruptions, "You are definitely getting better at the sarcasm, Captain, but you've still got a long way to go before you can catch up to me."

"Guys!" Bruce suddenly shouted as he pounded his fist hard down on the table to finally get their attention. "You need to see this!"

"All right, all right," Tony answered as he looked over at the doctor in surprise at his outburst. "You have our attention now, Doctor."

Steve quickly apologized, "I'm sorry, Dr. Banner."

Bruce took a deep breath and finally replied, "I think I may have found our guy."

"You mean the guy in the armor from the surveillance cameras at the lab in Texas?" Tony asked. "You're kidding me!"

"I just typed in a bunch of key words in the search bar and hit enter," Bruce responded as he turned his computer around to show the others. "Circus, famous guy in armor, sword; this guy's picture actually came up. He goes by 'the Swordsman.' I guess I probably should have tried this sooner."

Tony answered, "It certainly would have saved us some trouble and time; even some extra unwanted pounds I probably put on from all of the fried bread dough, cotton candy, and candy apples I ate at each of the circuses and fairs we visited."

Bruce only stared at Tony, then snapped out of it and replied, "Yeah, sorry. Look, this guy is wearing similar armor to the guy at the lab and as I'm looking at the information for the circus he works for, I see that there's a midget, two actually, as well as several acrobats. I think that this may be our thief."

"Where is their circus at right now?" Steve asked as he quickly finished eating.

"It looks like they are currently in Missouri; St. Louis," Bruce responded. "We should get going. Tonight is their last performance before the company is taking a break."

Tony stood from the table, followed by both Steve and Bruce as he said, "Well then, I suggest we track down Miss. Romanoff and take off for good, old St. Louis. I have rather fond memories there, surprisingly."

Steve shook his head and scoffed, "Of course you do."

Meanwhile...

Natasha walked through the streets in downtown Savage in hopes of trying to clear her head and let go of her anger toward her friends, but it wasn't long before she realized the person she was really angry at was herself. She had allowed the others to see what she was so afraid to show anyone for fear that they would use it against her. As a master assassin, she was trained not let her emotions get in the way of doing whatever she needed to do, but the more that she was around Clint, especially since their big battle, she realized that her feelings were getter harder and harder for her to hide, especially from herself. She knew they were right. She did love him, but she still couldn't admit it to anyone else. She wasn't going to let it compromise her.

She continued to walk until her phone suddenly began to ring. She expected it to be one of the guys calling to tell her that they had come up with a plan and were on their way back to the quinjet they had set down in a large, empty field outside of town. However, as she looked at the caller id, she saw that it was Clint instead. It surprised her to see his name appear on the screen.

"Clint, is everything all right?" she quickly asked as she answered before he could say anything.

"_I'm all right, Tasha,_" he answered solemnly. "_I just wanted to make sure you and the others were all right._"

Natasha could hear the sadness in his voice as he spoke, but knowing he wouldn't tell her what was bothering him, she ignored it and replied, "Of course we're all right. Has Thor found you yet? Loki's scepter was stolen by two of the scientists and an agent. Thor has come back to bring it up with him to Asgard. Fury asked him to try to find you so that you can help him. You were right. We should have destroyed the scepter the day we won the battle. If we had, it wouldn't be out in enemy hands once again."

She could hear Clint sigh as he responded, "_As I told you before, I'm done with S.H.I.E.L.D., with the Avengers; I'm done with all of it. I can't be that person anymore, Nat, but I will fight one more time to track down the scepter and destroy it myself once and for all. I already know that it's been taken. I've run into the men, who have it. It's a long story._"

"Don't go and try to fight them alone, Clint," she pleaded. "Please wait for Thor to find you, or tell me where you are so that Fury can get men out to you right away. At least tell me, who has the scepter."

"_Not this time, Tasha,_" Clint answered as he became angry. "_This is my fight. If Thor finds me, fine, but I have to do this. This is my responsibility. I just wanted to let you know that at least one of our problems is being handled and that in case something happens to me, I'm sorry. Good bye._"

Natasha tried calling out his name more than once, but as soon as he had finished talking, he hung up and no doubt threw away the phone in order to keep Fury from tracking him down. After she fought to register what Clint had told her, she put her own phone back inside of her pocket and took off running as quickly as she could toward the restaurant. She arrived just as her friends were coming out and getting into the car they had borrowed to drive within the city.

Tony saw her running up to them as he called out, "Ah, we were just about to call you to let you know we've figured out where our thieves might be. We're heading to St. Louis."

She shook her head as she replied, "I need you to drop me off back at headquarters before you go."

"But, Miss Romanoff," Steve cut in. "We have a mission to complete and we have our orders."

"I don't care about my orders anymore," she responded firmly. "Hawkeye's in trouble and I'm going to find him, whether Fury likes it or not. He's run into the men, who have the scepter. I'll explain the rest on our way."

Steve looked between Tony and Bruce, then turned back to Natasha as he answered, "All right. Back to the bunker it is."

As Natasha and the captain got into the car's front seats and Tony and Bruce both got into the back, Stark quickly leaned over and whispered into Bruce's ear, "She is so in love with Legolas." 


	9. Chapter 9

Eleventh Hour

Chapter Nine

Later that night, when Director Fury had been informed that the Quinjet was about to touch back down inside the bunker's hanger bay, he stood from his seat, where he had been quietly going over information gathered on the specifics of Loki's scepter so far in his private quarters, and headed to the hanger to wait for his team to walk out.

From what Fury and the scientists had learned of the scepter so far, was that it was true that it had a strong connection to the tesseract, but with the cube no longer on Earth, its power was weakened. However, the power it did still have was enough to make it a new problem for them and Fury realized he was a fool to not have insisted Thor take it up with him when he left for Asgard, as well as to have hidden the fact that S.H.I.E.L.D. was still in possession of it from the Avengers. Agents Barton and Romanoff were right and now it was out there somewhere in the wrong hands once again. Fury really hated the council.

As the Quinjet landed and the team walked out, they found that the director and Agent Hill, who had joined Fury as he walked through the corridors, were standing there waiting for them, no doubt waiting for an explanation as to why they were back. As they walked toward them, Tony and Steve quickly played rocks, paper, scissors to see which one of them would be the one to explain their actions to Fury, but before the loser stepped forward, Natasha rolled her eyes at them and walked on ahead.

When she stopped in front of Fury, she began to explain, "Sir, I was the one who insisted that we come back so that I can find Agent Barton, while the others continue on their mission to find the canisters. Clint's in trouble. He called me to tell me that he had run into the men, who had hired our men to steal them the scepter. He's going in alone to do whatever it takes to get it back to destroy it once and for all. I need…"

The director interrupted, "Miss. Romanoff, I get that you have a strong sense of loyalty to Agent Barton, but Thor is on his way to him now to try to convince him to join him in the search for the scepter. Hawkeye will be just fine without…"

"With all due respect, Sir," she said as she cut him off as well. "I don't care what your orders to me were. Clint called me to say good bye. He isn't just leaving us. He's going to make sure that no one can use that thing against us or our world again, even if it means he has to die to do it."

"He's going to make the ultimate sacrifice to protect all of us," Steve responded solemnly. "Director Fury, if anyone can help him with the hell that the scepter has put him through, it's Natasha, not another god, who still has a sense of love for the monster responsible for all of this in the first place."

Tony spoke up as he added, "If you don't want to be responsible for the death of another one of your men, then I suggest you allow Natasha to go."

Fury looked between the faces of the people he had recently gained a great deal of respect for and finally answered, "Very well, I read you all loud and clear. Maria, I want you to assist Agent Romanoff with her search for Agent Barton. The rest of you, I need you to get back to your search for the thieves, who stole those canisters. Do you have any leads?"

"We discovered that the circus our probable thieves are traveling with are currently in St. Louis and that their last show is tonight; right now," Tony replied as Natasha and Maria walked away. "The doctor, here, managed to find our ring leader by typing in random words in the search bar on his computer; something we all should have thought of much sooner."

"I read up on the people working for this company and found that the leader on the surveillance videos is one of the star attractions in their show, who goes by 'the Swordsman," Bruce continued. "They also have a couple of midgets, as well as several acrobats, and I found that the group was doing a show in Texas on the night the canisters were stolen. These are definitely our guys."

Fury thought for a moment and then said, "You said that this, 'Swordsman' walks under the surveillance camera at the lab as he waves and smiles directly into it. Why does it sound like finding him is way too easy?"

Steve responded, "Probably because this has been way too easy."

"You call searching for three days at every circus, carnival, or fair around, easy?" Tony asked."

"This guy was dressed in what looked like medieval armor and wasn't afraid to be seen," Steve answered as he ignored Tony. "He was cocky because he knows that he isn't going to get caught even when we discovered who he is."

Bruce replied, "You don't think he'll be at the sight where they are performing tonight, do you?"

Steve shook his head and responded, "I don't think he's been with the company since they were in Texas. He and his pals have run off on their own, probably no longer wearing their costumes, unless they are committing other robberies."

"So, we go down to St. Louis, talk to the circus company's owners, find out who our guy really is and what he looks like under his armor, and then work to track him and the other freaks down," Tony said. "Sounds pretty simple to me."

"Yeah, all except the actual finding him part," Bruce answered. "I doubt we'll get lucky enough that their friends at the circus will know their whereabouts."

Tony replied, "No, probably not, but it's a start. We should go. Besides, maybe JARVIS will be able to help us out a little. Who knows, we may get lucky yet."

Fury spoke up as they turned and got back aboard the Quinjet saying, "Good luck, gentlemen and keep me informed every step of the way."

As the men flew off, Fury left the hanger bay and walked toward the main control room, where he knew Agents Hill and Romanoff were. As he arrived and walked up behind them, the director found them to be staring at some new footage on the computer screens in front of where they were standing.

Maria saw him as he arrived and said, 'We were just about to call you, Sir."

"What is it we are watching, Agent Hill?" he asked as he continued to look at the monitors.

"This is news footage from earlier tonight from outside of some bar down in West Virginia," Maria responded. "According to the witnesses, there was some kind of attack on a group of men inside of the bar by some stranger, then shortly after the stranger left the bar, he himself was attacked by another group of men with heavy guns, who open fired on him as he ran away. One man reported that he saw the stranger fire on them as well, but with arrows that blew up instead of with bullets. The footage we are looking at now is of the bar shortly after it was blown up. No one actually saw how it happened, but they are suspecting that since this stranger's arrows could blow…"

"People are suspecting the stranger of causing this damage as well," Fury finished for her. "They are suspecting Hawkeye."

Natasha turned to look directly at the director as she said firmly, "Sir, you and I both know that Clint wouldn't do that. If he had gotten into a fight with these men inside the bar, it was for a good reason and the people, who attacked him as he ran, they were firing on him. He had to defend himself."

Maria spoke up as she asked, "And the bar? There is speculation that the men inside it, as well as two cops, a waitress, and the bartender were all killed when it blew."

"Clint didn't do that," Natasha answered firmly. "There is no way he would have fired one of his arrows when it could cause harm to innocent people. Someone else blew up the bar and since Hawkeye said he ran into the people with the scepter…"

"You believe that they blew the bar using the weapon instead," Fury replied. "I agree with you, Miss. Romanoff. Maria, call our men aboard the Helicarrier and inform them that we are heading there now. Tell them that I want them to prepare her for flight. We are heading down to West Virginia. Maybe we'll get lucky and we'll be able to get to our man before Thor does and before Agent Barton gets himself killed."

Maria Hill nodded as she said, "Yes, Sir."

Natasha turned back to the monitors and continued to stare at the footage playing over and over in front of her. It scared her as she realized that with doubt Clint was blaming himself for what happened to the innocent people, who died inside the bar. There was no way that any of it was his fault, but perhaps the person, who had the scepter, killed those people because Clint had managed to elude them. Something else was going on that wasn't being reported. There is more to the puzzle and they aren't going to know what it is unless they get to Clint in time to help him.


	10. Chapter 10

Eleventh Hour

Chapter Ten

After Jacques and his men, including the scientist and the two agents, who used to work for S.H.I.E.L.D., had blown up the bar using Loki's scepter, the group quickly loaded up into two separate cars, as well as an unmarked van and left the scene before more cops and news reporters showed up that could cause them unwanted trouble.

What the group didn't realize was that Clint hadn't disappeared as they suspected that he had. Instead, the Avenger had shot one of his arrows, which attached itself underneath the car that carried both Jacques and the weapon, allowing Hawkeye to be able to track him from a distance. Once they had disappeared, Clint quickly took one last look at the burning bar from his perch on top of the building he had ended up on after the fight, then ran down through the building and out the back exit, and finally took off after Jacques on his bike that had, luckily for him, not been destroyed in all the gunfire.

He had been following after them for several hours, when his lack of sleep over several days now, was slowly beginning to make it difficult for him to keep going. However, as a spy and trained assassin, he was used to running under this kind of pressure. Clint hadn't slept for more than an hour at a time since he had left the bunker and before that, no more than two in a night since the team's fight against Loki and the Chitauri.

It wasn't that he didn't want to sleep. He couldn't for long, as his nightmares always woke him in a panic and drenched in cold sweats. Unfortunately for him, S.H.I.E.L.D. wasn't an agency that came with a professional therapist when you needed one, not that he would make use of it if they did. Clint had never experienced this kind of fear before, but then again, he had never had his mind taken over and forced to kill his friends and other innocent people before either. He couldn't shake the memories, or the blame he felt for their deaths. Like he had said to Natasha after he had tried to kill her, he had been unmade and it scared him more than anything ever could.

It was about four o'clock the next morning, when Jacques and his men finally pulled over at a large open field surrounded by several large trees, just outside of the border of Tennessee and met up with another group that were already there and waiting for them. It was an odd place for sure for a group of criminals to hide out, but at the same time, it was remote and these weren't ordinary criminals. Clint recognized a few of the new faces from back when he had run with Jacques and they each had their own unique skills.

Clint quietly snuck through the trees as their attentions were focused on their tasks at hand. When he found a tree that was close enough to give him a good view, but far enough away so that they wouldn't spot him, he quickly climbed up close to the top and waited. His days he had spent with Jacques had brought back bad memories for him as well, but he quickly pushed them down in order to stay focused on watching their movements as they worked to set up the rest of their camp sites.

Meanwhile…

When Steve, Bruce, and Tony all arrived at the circus site a few hours after leaving their headquarters once again, the performers were busy working on taking down their tents and preparing to leave St. Louis. The three of them walked up to several of them in order o try to ask them a few questions, but they kept on shoving them away and ignoring them, that was until the owner of the company finally walked over to the teammates and began to question why they were here so late after the show.

Steve spoke up as he answered, "Forgive us for intruding, but we were just hoping to gather some information. We are looking for the man, who goes by the name, 'the Swordsman.' Do you have any idea where he might be?"

The short, stumpy man replied, "What do you want with him? If you're cops, he certainly ain't here. Hasn't been for several nights now. That schmuck left me high and dry after all I did for him and his crew. They all left me."

"Don't worry, we're not cops," Steve responded quickly.

"Not even close," Tony added smugly.

Steve turned back and glared at Tony, who only gave him a cheshire grin, and then turned back to look at the owner and continued, "Sir, we're not cops, but we are looking for him and it'd be a big help if you could give us anything that could help us to find him."

The man answered, "As I said, he ain't here and if you're friends with him, I suggest you go out and make new ones. He isn't worth the trouble."

"What kind of trouble do you mean?" Bruce asked.

"He's become nothing, but a trouble maker and he picked a lot fights with a lot of us here," the owner replied. "Also, I caught him stealing from several of us, but I always gave him another chance because he was my star attraction. He was lucky."

Bruce looked between his friends and then asked, "Do you know if he ever stole things aside from any of you?"

The man appeared surprised as he responded, "Is he some kind of criminal or something? If I had known that, I would have let him go a long time ago, I swear. I can't believe the kid was right."

"What do you mean?" Steve asked this time. "What kid?"

"He never used to be this way, you know," the owner answered. "He was once a good man. He always had a bit of a temper, but he was a good man nonetheless and a friend. However, everything changed the day his partner and so called apprentice if you will, betrayed him and accused him of being a thief. I didn't believe the kid. If I had, he might still be alive. "

Tony grew frustrated and grabbed the man by the shirt as he said, "I want you to focus on me, Chunky. Answer my friend's question and give us something that will help us to find our mutual friend."

The man pulled away and replied, "I don't know anything, I swear! And I don't remember the kid's real name, but he went by the name, Hawkeye. Good kid; great with a bow and arrow."

Steve, Tony, and Bruce looked between each other in shock, until Steve finally asked, "Was his real name possibly Clint Barton?"

"Yeah, I think that was it," the owner said. "Jacques trained him well and he was a great addition to our show. But after our performance the last night in New Orleans years ago, Jacques and Hawkeye got into a big fight after the kid accused him of robbing a lot of money from our carnival at the time. The police had said that they had caught the thieves, so I didn't believe him. The rest of us left the grounds as they continued their fight, but once Jacques caught up with us, he was alone. I asked where the kid was and he said that he had jumped to his death from the high wire. He said there was nothing he could do to stop the kid and that we should just keep on going; that the groundskeepers would find his body soon and take care of him."

"And you didn't think that was strange when this, Jacques told you to just leave him there?" Steve asked angrily. "You're a fool!"

"Jacques was upset," the man retorted. "He cared about that kid for as long as they were together. Why else would he have been willing to train him?"

Steve stormed away, as both Tony and Bruce followed after him, leaving the owner alone to go back to whatever it was he was doing before they interrupted him. The teammates were surprised to discover that Clint had been through something so tragic, but even more surprised to learn that he had a past with their thieves.

Tony spoke up first as he said, "Well, I think it's safe to say that we definitely have the right guy, but we're probably going to need Barton's help to track him down. If anyone knows this guy, it will be him."

"We have no idea where he is and even if we did, he's already going through too much," Steve responded. "We can't burden him with this."

"I agree with Steve," Bruce agreed. "We've got access to everything we could possibly ever want to track down a group of circus performers. I suggest that we drive back to the jet and talk to Fury. He won't be happy if we don't inform him of this new information right away."

"Since when are we concerned about what Fury feels?" Tony asked. "I for one, will never start caring what that Cyclops thinks or feels. I would prefer to keep our association totally platonic, which means, I don't have to."


	11. Chapter 11

Eleventh Hour

Chapter Eleven

As Clint remained hidden at the top of the tree for the last several hours, he kept watch over the people he had once considered a family, as his parents had been killed in a car accident and his brother had abandoned him when he refused to be a part of Jacques Duquesne's band of thieves. After the group had finished setting up their tents and unpacking their gear, as well as several crates, from their vehicles, they began a fire and gathered around it to talk. Clint wished that he had a way of listening in on their conversation, as they were no doubt planning whatever it was they had in store next.

When he saw that most of them were all far enough away from the crates they had unloaded and set up a tent around, Clint moved from the branch he had initially set himself up on, quietly lowered himself to a much lower branch in order to keep from being heard, and quickly took out his bow as he fired a tranquilizing arrow into both of the men that stayed back to guard the crates that they had stolen from wherever it was they had stolen them from.

Once they went down, he jumped down to the ground, then rushed over to the crates, and began to look through them, hoping to find that the scepter was inside one of them, but after opening several, finding only stolen art and other trinkets, he soon came across several crates filled with canisters that were obviously filled with some kind of chemicals. Clint took a look at the writing on the crates that the canisters were in and saw that they had been stolen from a lab down in Texas. Something sparked his memory and within a moment remembered reading that a few years ago, several S.H.I.E.L.D. agents had been assigned to help move a bunch of canisters just like these to the lab. These canisters were S.H.I.E.L.D. property and contained dangerous gamma chemicals that had once created another hulk that was not at all like the one inside of his friend.

Clint realized then that this was too big for him to handle on his own and silently cursed himself for dumping his cell phone earlier in order to avoid Natasha and the director. He moved to the back of the tent and when he saw that the coast was clear, he rushed over to one of the unconscious men to grab his cell phone, then ran back inside the tent and quickly dialed a number where he could reach Fury. However, the one-eyed man didn't pick up and he had no other choice, but to leave a message.

Clint whispered as he said, "This is Barton. I don't have a lot of time. Several crates stolen from one of S.H.I.E.L.D.'s labs down in Texas have been stolen by the same men, who stole the scepter from us. I don't know what they have planned, but they're filled with the chemicals that created the more dangerous hulk, which helped our friendly doctor destroy Harlem. I'm not going to be able to…"

Before he could finish his message, Clint sensed movement from behind him, and suddenly darted out of the way as a blast from Loki's scepter ruptured toward him, causing him to drop the phone. Luckily, the blast only tore through the back of the tent and burst into a tree, causing it to splinter in half. When Clint regained his stance as he stayed close to the ground, he swiftly pulled up his bow from around his back as he tethered an arrow and pointed it directly at Jacques, who only smiled as he stood before him with the scepter in hand.

His former mentor spoke up smugly saying, "I have to say you are full of surprises, Hawkeye. My men suspected that you had run off after our fight last night, but seeing that you are here, my own suspicions have been confirmed. With a bow and arrows like those, you must be working with S.H.I.E.L.D. Why else would you have followed me and my men, other than for revenge after I left you for dead so long ago? No, you never were the revenge type. You're here because your boss wants this amazing weapon back."

"I had already left Fury when you had your men steal the scepter," Clint responded sternly. "I don't work for him anymore. Believe me, I thought about our last encounter when I saw you again last night too, but there are more important things at stake, then a grudge match. I won't let you hurt anyone else with the scepter."

"And you thought that you could sneak into my camp to steal it back from me all on your own?" Jacques asked. "I admit I was impressed by your show last night when you bested every one of my men, but there is nowhere for you to escape to or to hide this time. I am going to kill you."

It was then that deafening thunder sounded and bright streaks of lighting burst through the sky, causing Jacques and all of his men, who had gathered outside the tent behind their boss after the commotion began, to jump and stare in shock at the sudden storm as it came from out of nowhere.

Clint on the other hand, only smiled and answered, "I'm not exactly alone. You haven't met my friend."

The lightning struck the ground, as a man suddenly appeared before the group from within it. In attempt to use the momentary distraction against him, Clint shot his arrow directly at Jacques' chest, but the man saw it in time to use the scepter's power to blast the arrow into pieces. As he did so, Clint bolted out the back of the tent in order to keep himself from ending up like his arrow had and began to run through the woods surrounding the area. Jacques ignored the man, who appeared out of the lightning, and angrily began to run after Clint.

The rest of Jacques' men scrambled for their weapons in order to take down the stranger, but before any of them could fire on him, Thor shot several bolts of lightning from his hammer to knock down as many of them as he could. Those that didn't get hit finally fired upon him, as the god quickly flung his hammer back in their direction. When the men were all down, Thor admired his work and began to look around the camp for the missing scepter, until suddenly a large blast struck him from behind, pitching him far from away from the camp.

Once Clint had managed to get far enough ahead of Jacques, he quickly climbed up into a tree and stood out on a large branch as the thief came into view within the clearing below him. The man didn't see him as Hawkeye aimed an arrow at him once again, but just as he fired, the sound of a much larger blast than what could have possibly come from the scepter came out of nowhere, startling Hawkeye enough so that his arrow missed and struck the ground at Jacques' feet.

The thief saw Clint was distracted by the attack at the camp and suddenly shot the scepter's power directly at him, but Clint saw the attack in time and jumped as the explosion caused the tree to burst up into flames. The force of the blast was more power than Jacques had expected, as it not only caused Clint to crash hard into the ground as he jumped from the tree, but it was enough to cause Jacques himself to get thrown back against another tree behind him. The impacts against the ground and the tree were enough to knock them both unconscious, as everything around suddenly became eerily still.


	12. Chapter 12

Eleventh Hour

Chapter Twelve

Tony, Steve, and Bruce finally caught up with Natasha and Fury aboard the Helicarrier within a few hours after they had left the circus in Missouri. It was late, but no one thought about sleep as what was going on was too big. Once everyone had gathered together in the briefing room, Steve began to catch Natasha and Agent Hill, on the information they had learned from the circus company's owner, as they had already spoken to Fury about it briefly while they were on their way back.

After they finished, Fury spoke up saying, "Unfortunately, there is no way for us to get into contact with Agent Barton to talk to him about this Jacques… What did you say his last name was, Captain?"

Steve looked at him and stuttered as he answered, "Well uh… I… I didn't actually say what it was because we… we don't know. The guy didn't say."

"And you didn't think to ask?" the director asked.

"Sir, that subject didn't ever come up," Tony responded. "He told us the first name, but we were all a little caught up on the information that came up after. And the captain here began to get a bit angry as he talked. Besides, the guy was a moron. I doubt he would have remembered Jacques' last name, even if we tried to force it out of him."

Fury looked between both Tony and Steve, then turned to Maria and asked, "Agent Hill, can you do a quick search on this, 'Swordsman' and use his first name and circus as the keywords in order to help narrow down the search. Luckily for us, we've got a wide access to every web site and news report around the world."

Bruce replied, "That's what I said. You may want to think about installing a better computer system in the Quinjet."

"I tried to tell him that too, but he only glared at me with that one eye of his, just as he is doing right now, so I will shut up and let you talk," Tony said smugly. "Sorry about that, Nick."

"His name is Jacques Duquesne," Agent Hill spoke up as Fury ignored a call that had just come in, believing that it may have been one of the members on the council. "There isn't a lot of information about his background, but he has no criminal record."

Steve cut in saying, "Just because he doesn't have record, doesn't mean he's clean. It just means he hasn't gotten caught. What does it say about his career with the circus?"

Maria continued, "The Swordsman' definitely is quite the popular attraction. People would come from all around the world to see him perform multiple stunts and daring fights with all kinds of swords. Years ago, he announced that he had taken on an apprentice, Hawkeye, who was known for his archery skills. People loved them, but eventually their act began to die. That is, until a few years later it became known that Hawkeye had tragically committed suicide by jumping from a high wire late one night after getting into a fight with his mentor, as the kid had tried to accuse him of counting the money he had stolen from the carnival, but became ridiculed when he was proven wrong. Apparently the police soon caught the real thieves."

"Clint never would have falsely accused anyone of doing something and he certainly wouldn't have tried to commit suicide," Natasha said firmly. "Whatever happened to him back then, this scumbag made up a bunch of lies, either to protect himself or to put himself back up in the spotlight."

"How much do you know about his past?" Bruce asked as he looked mainly at Natasha, then at Director Fury.

Natasha answered sadly, "Nothing; that is until now. He doesn't ever talk about what happened to him before he came to work for S.H.I.E.L.D. I can tell that he isn't proud of some of the things he did, but as master assassins, we're taught never to give anything away so that the enemy can't use something against us."

Fury added, "I don't know anything more either, even though we've done extensive backgrounds on every agent we've got, as well as the rest of you. Both Barton and Miss. Romanoff are the only ones, who have certain secrets still intact, especially Barton. Keeping his past a secret was the only way he would agree to come on board and I wasn't about to pass a person with his skills up."

"Good call," Tony responded as Fury took out his cell in order to see who had left him the message that had come in a few minutes ago.

As he did, he saw that the number wasn't one that he recognized, but as he began to listen to the message, he quickly stopped it and replayed it after he turned the phone on speaker in order to play it for the others, then quietly ordered Maria to put a trace on the number in hopes of getting a tracking signal.

They were all surprised to hear Clint's voice as it suddenly came over the speaker saying, "_This is Barton. I don't have a lot of time. Several crates stolen from one of S.H.I.E.L.D.'s labs down in Texas have been stolen by the same men, who stole the scepter from us. I don't know what they have planned, but they're filled with the chemicals that created the more dangerous hulk, which helped our friendly doctor destroy Harlem. I'm not going to be able to…_"

Natasha became afraid when Clint had gotten cut off, as did the rest of his friends, but Bruce was the first to speak up as he asked, "I don't understand, why would a group of circus performers want to steal both the scepter and several canisters of gamma radiation? What would they possibly want to do with it?"

"The real question we should be asking is, how on earth would these circus performers get access to their information about this stuff and how did they manage to bribe members of S.H.I.E.L.D. to help them?" Tony replied. "And why is Hawkeye smack dab in the middle of it all?"

"You can stop your accusation against him right there, Stark!" Natasha said angrily.

"I promise you, wasn't trying to accuse him of anything, Natasha," Tony responded defensively. "I swear."

She continued, "He felt he needed to make right what wasn't his fault to begin with when he saw that Duquesne had the scepter. Not only does he want more than anything to make sure that it is destroyed so that it can't hurt anyone else, but Duquesne is an enemy from his past. However, he called us when he realized he couldn't bring him down alone after finding the canisters."

Maria finally called out, "I've got a location on the cell, Sir. It appears to be somewhere around the border of Tennessee and Virginia."

The director turned to her and ordered, "Then, make the proper calls and get us there as fast as this craft can go. It sounds like Agent Barton has gotten himself in trouble. Let's just hope we're in time to help him like he asked for."

Meanwhile…

After being blasted by an unknown force and thrown however far away from the camp site that he had been, Thor stood from the ground and took a look around. The night had suddenly become silent as whatever birds or crickets in the area were silenced and his surroundings looked similar to the time when he, Iron Man, and Captain America had gotten into a fight upon their first meeting. The god had no idea what it was that had struck him or caused this kind of damage.

Thor finally raised his hand in order to call for his hammer. After it appeared in his hand, he used it to fly back to the camp and when he arrived, he found that only a few of the men he had taken down before were still unconscious on the ground or dead. He then walked into the tent and found a bunch of crates that were only filled with treasures and nothing more, but there was no sign of the scepter.

However, off in the distance, Thor noticed that a tree was on fire, making it appear that the fight continued after he had been struck. Instead of flying, he walked through the woods slowly looking for any signs of any more attacks, but as he finally came to the burning tree, that's fire was now beginning to dwindle down, all he found sticking up from the ground was an arrow.

The god quickly looked around the area for any sign of his friend and finally found him unconscious on the ground, practically hidden underneath a large branch of the tree that's top half had somehow been shattered into pieces by a force nearly as strong as the one that blasted him; the scepter.

Thor rushed over to Clint's side and quickly pulled off the branch that had pinned his body to the ground. When the god knelt down and gently turned him over onto his back, the younger man appeared to be hurt pretty badly, but he slowly began to come to and before Thor could stop him, Clint stiffly began to sit up and looked up at his face as it slowly came into focus.

"Are you all right, Agent Barton?" Thor asked softly.

"I'm fine," Clint answered more curtly than he had meant to. "I'm sorry. Thanks for your help."

Thor helped him to sit back against the tree behind him as he replied, "My pleasure. What happened here?"

Clint tried to focus as he tried to remember, then suddenly quickly struggled to stand on his feet as he responded, "Jacques; did you find him? Did you find the scepter?"

"Take it easy, Hawkeye," Thor said forcefully as he tried to stop his friend from hurting himself even more than he already had. "There was no one else here aside from you. Do you know this man, who has the scepter?"

"It's a long story," Clint answered angrily as he suddenly cried out against the pain. "But right now, we need to find him. The power is too much for him and he has no idea what he's doing. He's already killed innocent people. I won't let him catch me off guard again."

Thor caught him as Clint began to collapse again to the ground and said, "You are in no condition for another fight, My Friend, but do not worry. We will find this man and we will find Loki's scepter. But first, allow me to bring you back to our friends where you can be looked after. You have a nasty wound on the side of your head, as well as several across the rest of your body."

Clint replied softly, "I don't think I have the energy to argue with a god."

Thor only smiled at his remark, but quickly grew concerned as the archer's head suddenly fell back against the tree as he fell unconscious once again. The god carefully pulled him close with one arm and with his other, swung the hammer and began to fly through the air toward the headquarters where he believed their friends to be. Thankfully, it wasn't long before Thor saw the Helicarrier as it travelled through the sky in the distance.


	13. Chapter 13

Eleventh Hour

Chapter Thirteen

When she and the others heard that Thor had returned as he landed on the Helicarrier's deck with Clint unconscious in the god's arms, both Natasha and Steve rushed through the aircraft's halls and was there as several agents began pulling Clint along on a gurney toward the medical bay, followed by Thor. She tried to push her way to his side, but wasn't able to do so until they arrived and the agents finally cleared out in order to make room for the doctor when he or she arrived. Thor and Steve stayed in the back of the room, while Tony and Bruce walked in a few minutes later and stood with the others, but when the doctor didn't show up, Bruce became impatient and stepped forward as he began to look his friend over himself.

"It appears service around here isn't very good," Bruce said as he worked on removing Clint's shirt away from his chest in order to get a look at the multiple wounds, as well as the clearly broken ribs, with Natasha's help. "A few of these broken ribs are the ones Clint received in your fight days ago when you guys rescued the employees from Stark Industries, but three more are broken as well. He never should have left here, let alone gotten into another fight so quickly."

"I don't think he had much of a choice, Doctor," Natasha replied softly as she kept her eyes on Clint and gently moved her hand along the side of his face. "What about the gash on his head?"

As he carefully moved the younger man's head to the side to take a closer look at the wound, Bruce answered, "It looks worse than it is. Don't get me wrong, Agent Barton is lucky that Thor found him when he did. His head wound and the number of broken ribs; he's lucky he's not in worse shape. As long as he gets the rest and treatment he needs, Clint's going to be fine."

Director Fury walked into the room as Steve stepped forward toward the bed and responded, "Thank God. What exactly happened out there, Thor?"

"As I arrived to search for the scepter, I was greeted by a number of heavily armed men, who fired at me," Thor began. "I was easily able to take them down, but the scepter and Agent Barton were nowhere in sight. However, before I could begin my search, I was struck from behind by a powerful blast, causing me to land far from the site where I had been moments before."

"Do you have any idea what it was that blasted you or who it was?" Fury asked again.

Thor looked at his friend and replied, "No human weapon has the ability to do whatever it was that did this to me and not even Loki's scepter has that much power without the tesseract here on Earth."

Tony looked between his friends and said, "Great, so what you're saying is that we are dealing with more aliens on top of this Duquesne fellow and his minions?"

"It appears that way," Thor answered. "When I found Hawkeye, he was unconscious near a burning tree. He awoke long enough to explain that he had gotten into a fight with the man he still believes has the scepter. The weapon and the man were nowhere in sight."

"Can you find the scepter again?" Natasha asked as she finally looked away from Clint.

Thor responded, "I am afraid my ability to feel the weapon's power has grown dim. Perhaps, I may be able to locate it again, if whoever has it chooses to use it, but until then…"

Tony cut him off saying, "Until then, we are totally screwed. Forgive my lack of optimism here."

"Agent Barton here may be the key to finding Jacques Duquesne again," the director said solemnly. "When do you think he will be awake, Doctor?"

"I'm awake," Clint replied groggily as he attempted to sit up with both Natasha's and Bruce's help.

Natasha spoke up in concern saying, "You need to take it easy, Clint. You got yourself busted up pretty good."

He answered, "I didn't mean to let him catch me off guard. Something happened out there."

"Thor has just finished explaining to us that not even he's sure what it was that struck him, but we will find out," Fury responded. "In the meantime, can you tell us about this man from your past that made you go all gung-ho to try to bring him down yourself?"

"It's my fault those people from the bar are dead," Clint replied as he slowly lowered his head sadly in order to avoid looking into their faces. "If it weren't for my actions the other night, he never would have involved them."

Natasha gently put her hand under his chin and lifted his head toward her as she answered, "What happened was not your fault. I know that whatever it was that happened in your past was tragic and you shouldn't have to explain what happened to us…"

Clint interrupted, "I have to explain. You need to know who Jacques is. I just… I swore to myself that I would never tell anyone and I couldn't risk becoming compromised. I am not proud of who I was back then."

"It sounded to us that you were a good man and when given the opportunity to become thieves like the rest of them, you tried to turn them in," Steve said firmly as Clint looked over at him I surprise. "We spoke with the man, who still runs the circus company you and Duquesne used to run with. You are an Avenger and a friend. Nothing you tell us will change that."

"When I was just a boy, my parents were both killed in a car accident and so my brother and I were sent to live in a children's home," Clint began. "However, we hated it there and so we ran away to join a circus; The Carson Carnival of Traveling Wonders. We both worked as roustabouts and I was trained in archery and knife throwing by Jacques, as well as another man, who called himself Trick Shot. I thought everything was going great until I caught Jacques counting money he had stolen from what our carnival had just earned. He asked me to join him, but I refused and when we fought, I fell off the high wire. Jacques believed I was dead and I should have been, but somehow… somehow I survived. He left me there to be found and taken care of by Buck, or Trick Shot. Even my brother abandoned me and disapproved when I turned down Jacques' offer. Trick Shot and I began to raid criminals of what they had stolen and soon we ran into a criminal named Marko. As the raid turned ugly and I seriously injured one of Marko's men, I discovered him to be my brother. I almost killed him because I had become what I tried to reject before. I left Trick Shot because I was repulsed by what I had done and I was eventually led here… to S.H.I.E.L.D. I don't know what became of Trick Shot, but it wasn't until a few nights ago when I ran into Jacques again."

Fury asked, "What happened at the bar? We saw the footage from the news reporters. They all believe that the stranger with the exploding arrows was responsible for blowing it up. We know you weren't, but we need to know what really happened."

Clint looked back at her as he responded, "A group of thugs were attacking the waitress there and no one was trying to help her. So, I did. I fought the men inside, then I left. That's when Jacques came up to me. He was just as surprised to see me alive, as I was surprised to see him again. He and his men attacked and I had to fight them off. It wasn't until after I had gotten away that I saw our scientists and agent drive up and hand Jacques Loki's scepter. He took his anger over what I had done to him and his men out on the bar and the people inside as he fired the scepter to see how much power it really had. Everything that's happened…"

"You're wrong," Natasha said firmly. "You need to stop blaming yourself or it's going to kill you!"

"I shouldn't even be here in the first place!" Clint shouted back as he stood from the bed he lay on and painfully moved toward the door. "You never should have made me an agent and certainly not an Avenger, Sir. I'm not a hero! Once I help you find Jacques and stop whatever is going on, I'm done. I can't keep pretending to be something I'm not."

With that said, Clint left the room, leaving his friends very bewildered as they remained behind in silence in the medical bay. Natasha felt the tears burning in the corners of her eyes, but she refused to let them fall in front of the others. She was the next one to leave in order to try to find where Clint had gone.

The others only looked between each other with grim looks on their faces when Thor finally spoke up saying, "I am so sorry for the pain my brother has caused. I had no idea the lasting effects that he and his scepter had left behind, when I thought that the battle was over. I assure you, Loki will pay and pay dearly."

Steve replied, "We know. But Loki isn't the only one about to pay the price for his cruelty. We are going to find 'the Swordsman' and whoever, or whatever it is, he is working for and we will stop them once and for all, no matter what. Bruce, I am sure that before too long, we're going to need the Hulk. That won't be a problem, will it?"

"If it helps a friend, I'll be ready," Bruce answered.

"Very good," Steve responded. "Avengers assemble!"


	14. Chapter 14

Eleventh Hour

Chapter Fourteen

Once Natasha found Clint again, he was inside his room, working on bandaging his own ribs, rather than allowing himself to be checked over by Bruce or any other doctor. As she entered, he knew that she was there, but refused to look up at her as he continued to do what he was doing.

"You know, you don't have to do that yourself," she said quietly. "Bruce is more than willing to help you if you don't want one of S.H.I.E.L.D.'s doctors. I don't blame you for not trusting anyone here, seeing as we've had three traitors. Clint, what's happened is not…?"

"I know what you're trying to do," Clint responded as he finally looked up at her. "Don't. Don't try to defend me. If anyone knows how I feel, it's you and I know that you don't pretend to believe that your past mistakes weren't your fault. Instead you fight to correct them, which is exactly what I'm trying to do. And I don't need a doctor to bandage me up. I've been doing it since I was a kid. I'm used to doing it on my own."

Natasha nodded and sat down on his bed beside him as she replied, "You're right, that I do fight to make up for the things I've done, but we're no longer alone. We can do this together."

Clint answered, "Why do you think that I'm not trying to run away? I'm in no condition to fight Jacques, his men, and whatever alien race we're about to go up against on my own."

"But as soon as we finish, you're going to leave again," she whispered sadly.

"I don't belong here, Natasha," he responded solemnly. "I'm not…"

Natasha interrupted angrily, "That's bull crap! If you really didn't belong here, then you can be darn well sure that I don't belong here either and yet I do, because of you. You saved my life when not even Fury saw what you did; when everyone else just saw me as Black Widow. After all the blood I've spilled, you gave me a second chance and I will never, ever be able to repay you for that."

Clint looked into her eyes, as he saw not only a plea for him to understand what she was trying to get him to understand, but also a compassion that no other person ever saw except for him and it was in that moment that he slowly leaned over and gently kissed her on her lips, until she abruptly pulled away and stood up from the bed with surprise and fear etched on her face.

Clint very quickly said, "I'm sorry. I didn't mean to… I love you, Natasha. I know that you don't… that you can't allow yourself to…"

"Stop!" she suddenly shouted. "Just stop. I have to go."

She quickly turned and left his room, but as the door closed behind her, she stopped walking and leaned back against the wall just outside in order to try to gather the thoughts that were racing through her mind. Clint sadly watched her storm out and when she was gone, he threw his pillow from his bed against the wall angrily and then slowly got back to bandaging his ribs. Natasha heard the pillow hit the wall and she realized that she had just ruined what she had gone in to see him for in the first place. Tears began to fall from her eyes as she slowly walked away.

"So, how did it go?" Tony asked when he and Steve suddenly ran into her in the hallway a few minutes later, as she quickly finished wiping the tears from her eyes. "Did you manage to convince him that he's being an idiot?"

She and Steve glared at Tony as she replied, "No, actually, I didn't. He's stubborn, as you are a conceited prick."

Steve raised his eyes in surprise at her remark as Tony answered, "Nicely said, Miss. Romanoff. And you are right. I apologize, but Agent Barton is preparing to come with us, is he not? I mean, I certainly wouldn't let a few broken ribs and a gash on the side of the head get in the way of finishing a fight."

"I tried to talk him out of it, but I couldn't convince him not to do that either," the Black Widow responded. "He won't let his pain or his anger jeopardize our mission, Captain. He's a soldier to the end until the dust settles."

"I know," Steve replied. "I have complete trust in him, as I have complete trust in the rest of our team despite our, differences."

Tony added, "If it wasn't for us coming together like we did when we battled the Chitauri, I wouldn't be so quick to put my trust in the Avengers, but after how all that played out, I think I can now. However, I still don't play well with others."

Natasha patted his shoulder and walked by him as she answered, "We know."

About twenty minutes later, most of the team were gathered around the table in the Helicarrier's conference room, all dressed in their uniforms, except for Tony, as well as Director Fury, Agent Hill, and Agent Stanton. Agent Barton was the only one, who had yet to arrive. While they waited, Fury asked around for ideas on how to locate and track down both the scepter and the canisters, since Thor was unable to do so anymore. So far, none of their suggestions were helping them any.

Finally, Hawkeye walked in dressed in his uniform as well, with his bow and quiver secure around his back. Everyone turned to look at him as he entered, except for Natasha, who kept her eyes trained on the others around the room, or the computer screen displaying their targets.

"I think I can help us with tracking Duquesne down, Sir," Clint said as he lifted the handle on his bow and pushed one of the buttons, as a light on it suddenly began to blink. "If he's still driving his car, as it appears that he is, then the tracker I placed on it will lead us right to him and hopefully the scepter and canisters as well."

Fury nodded in approval as he responded, "Good thinking, Agent Barton. Are you sure that you're up to going on this mission? As I recall, I pulled you off of active duty until you got yourself the proper rest and I know that you haven't done that. Can I trust you to not jeopardize this mission?"

Clint spoke up saying, "You know you can, Sir. Besides, this is my fight. I started this mess and I plan on helping to clean it up."

"Very well then," the director replied. "Avengers, you have a go. Do whatever it takes to find the scepter and the canisters, and bring these scumbags down once and for all."

"You heard the man," Steve answered as they all stood. "Let's fly!"


	15. Chapter 15

Eleventh Hour

Chapter Fifteen

When Jacques Duquesne finally awoke sometime later, he found himself to be locked up in what appeared to be a large prison cell, but with a large glass wall on one side instead of prison bars. The last thing he remembered was fighting against Hawkeye in the middle of the woods as chaos had begun to erupt from all around them. Then, when he thought he had Hawkeye in his sights at last, he fired his weapon, the scepter, directly at his enemy, but its blast was much stronger than what he had intended and he was forced back into a tree and soon passed out.

After observing his cell and what little he could see through the glass wall in front of him, Jacques called out, "I demand to know where I am! What am I doing here?"

He suspected that he was inside a S.H.I.E.L.D. prison cell, as Hawkeye was working them, and figured that they must have come to his rescue, but when one of his captors walked in and stood before him at the glass, Jacques saw that it wasn't the archer, Director Fury, nor someone with S.H.I.E.L.D. at all. Instead, it was his own employer's right hand, a creature, who smiled as smeared blood stained his foul teeth.

The creature spat, "You failed our Master. That is why you are here. Your lust for the scepter's power and your own petty revenge against one man overpowered your judgment."

"My enemy works with the very agency that created the ones, whom our Master hungers to see dead and defeated," Jacques replied angrily. "Hawkeye works for S.H.I.E.L.D."

"This Hawkeye, as you call him, is not just a member of the agency, but a member of the Avengers," the creature answered angrily. "We know of this man thanks to a former recruit, who also failed to take down the Avengers. Now, he has been left to be dealt with by his own people, whom he had betrayed. The Master does not take kindly to those, who fail."

Jacques asked, "Where are my men? Are they all dead?"

The creature responded, "Those, who have survived, are in another cell waiting for orders from the Master. He will see you now."

With that said, the door to his cell opened and Jacques followed the creature through the corridors of a large mansion that had been taken over and altered to be the Earthly lair for the being known to his right hand as the Master, otherwise known as Red Skull. Jacques had no idea whether he was still human, or if he was now just a monster, but what the circus performer did know of his employer was that he wanted the Avengers, especially the one known as Captain America, dead once and for all and the entire world to crumble to dust at his feet.

"I entrusted to you and your worthless men to bring me Loki's scepter, as well as the canisters filled with the same gamma radiation chemicals used to create the Hulk, but you failed and I had to send in the rest of my men to do your job, as you were nearly defeated by one man and Loki's adopted brother, Thor of Asgard," Red Skull said angrily as the creature walked forward and took his place beside the throne, which he sat upon. "I asked you to be a part of the new HYDRA because of your skills, as well as for your insights to the criminal underworld here on Earth."

"I successfully placed four of my men into S.H.I.E.L.D. long before you and your men came to me looking for help to rebuild your precious HYDRA," Jacques shouted back. "If it weren't for me, you never would have gotten your hands on the scepter or the canisters and now you want to punish me? I did not fail."

Red Skull looked at him and replied, "No, perhaps not, but I want to know exactly what happened out there that caused your delay to return here to me?"

The circus performer answered, "My men were tired. Unlike you, we need rest, as we had been going on for days without sleep in order to pull off our attack to gain your weapons and to stay ahead of S.H.I.E.L.D. However, we hit an obstacle we didn't expect when we ran into an old enemy of mine from long ago."

"Ah yes, the archer," the man with the distorted, red face responded. "The one Loki had under the scepter's power and control until his friends within the Avengers set him free. We have learned much about the team thanks to him."

"That explains why he followed after me," Jacques said. "He did say that he wouldn't allow me to harm others with the scepter. He didn't come after me for revenge."

The creature spoke up again as it asked, "How did this archer manage to come after you again in the woods and why did I have to come to your aid when I used my own power on the god to distract him long enough for us to gather up the weapons we had had you and your men gather? You never should have allowed your hate for one man to distract you from your mission."

Jacques replied, "I do not know how he found me. I admit my hate for Barton did distract me and I underestimated the scepter's power when I tried to kill him. However, you spared my life and brought me here. For that, I am grateful. I am asking you now to give me another chance to help you to succeed in your fight against the Avengers. You know that I will not let you down again, as Clint Barton is a member of the team. By you taking them out, we will be successful in destroying him as well. All I ask is that you allow me the pleasure to be the one to kill him."

"If I see that HYDRA's victory is at hand and you do not fail me again as you fight with me as my soldier, then, I will grant you your request to end Hawkeye's life however you deem fit," Red Skull answered. "Once all of the Avengers are defeated, as well as the agency, who have recruited them to be their saviors in the time of crisis, Earth will be mine to do with as I please. Loki failed because all he wished was to be ruler over them. With the scepter I once gave to him and by spreading the chemicals over vast populations of people to create more monsters like the Hulk, I shall succeed because what I wish for is to see death and for HYRDA to populate over the entire world. Are you with me, Jacques Duquesne?"

Jacques looked at the man sitting before him on his throne, as he responded with a treacherous smile etched upon his face, "Hail HYDRA!"


	16. Chapter 16

Eleventh Hour

Chapter Sixteen

A few hours later, a large army of heavily armed soldiers, as well as alien beings from different galaxies, who signed on to be members of the new HYDRA, stood guard outside of the mansion where Red Skull and his select few soldiers and scientists remained inside to finish placing the gamma radiation from the canisters into the chemical bombs they had worked to build, which they would soon send to the different cities they had chosen, in different countries around the world. Once the bombs are detonated and the radiation is released, fear, panic, and death would spread and create worldwide chaos as thousands of monsters bigger and more powerful than what the Avengers' Hulk is, would be born.

Everything was going well and their progress had so far been uninterrupted, until suddenly from out of nowhere, a hail of bullets suddenly fired into the warriors from a jet as it soared through the sky in their direction. As the disruption sounded, Red Skull, the creature, and Jacques all moved to a window to find out what was happening and saw that the Avengers had discovered their secret location and began the attack much earlier than what the villain had planned.

"How did they know where we were?" Red Skull angrily shouted as he grabbed the circus performer by his collar and then shoved him hard down to the ground. "This place was hidden from S.H.I.E.L.D.'s radar and is far from any civilian population. An attack was not supposed to happen here!"

"We're sorry for the surprise then, Hellboy!" Tony called out as he suddenly flew through the room, dressed in his armor, firing at several of the men and creatures surrounding him and then took a single shot directly at the man Tony saw was obviously the main villain in charge, who easily deflected the energy ball using the scepter to shield himself. "Actually, I'm not really sorry at all, but I thought I would try to be polite. The Avengers are here to put you down. What is it we should call you?"

Who was once just Johann Schmidt, quickly aimed the scepter at Iron Man as he answered, "You can call me Red Skull, you foolish human! That iron armor will not protect you from me."

With that said, he suddenly fired off a blast of his own, causing Tony to smash through a wall and crash down hard to the ground outside, where Thor had arrived swinging his hammer and was busy fighting off a number of their attackers. Suddenly, the Hulk came smashing into the fight, roaring and hollering in anger as he smashed the soldiers and aliens into the ground, followed by the rest of the team after Black Widow had finished firing from the Quinjet and Hawkeye set it down in the large open area surrounding the mansion.

As Thor got a moment of reprieve, he stood above Tony and helped him to his feet as the god asked, "Are you all right, Stark? Where did that blast come from?"

"I'm fine," he grunted as he opened his face mask and looked around him. "It appears that the man behind the curtain has found a way to amplify the power from Loki's scepter. It's got quite the kick."

"Man behind the curtain; is that another Wizard of Oz reference?" Steve asked as he joined the two after taking down three of the creatures, who were about to fire their guns on both Tony and Thor.

Tony just stared at his friend in his spangly suit until he replied, "Not really the point here, Captain, but yes. Our guy calls himself Red Skull because… well I'm guessing because he has a red skull for a face. He's quite ugly. My guess is he is definitely alien."

Hawkeye suddenly shouted out from a distance, as he and Natasha were fighting off a dozen men of their own, firing their weapons, "Forgive us for interrupting your conversation over there guys, but we could use your help!"

"Right," Tony said as he lowered his face mask once again and began to fire his numerous weapons at several more of the soldiers and alien creatures, followed by Thor and Captain America as they fought off their own, surrounding them. "Do you have any idea what alien race these things are, Thor?"

"There are some Chitauri, but the rest are not known to any Asgardian as far as I know," the god responded as he fired lightening from his hammer toward a large onslaught of soldiers as they charged toward the god.

Natasha took out three of the aliens as they fired upon her with an electric charge she fired from her short range tazers she wore on her wrists, as she spoke up saying, "These things are tougher than the Chitauri were, but they're certainly not invincible. We need to get inside and find whoever has the scepter so we can finally destroy it once and for all."

Captain America took out two more solidiers as he said, "Agreed and that's not all we need to find."

"Gamma," the Hulk grumbled angrily as he continued to smash their attackers.

"Hulk is right," Steve answered. "We need to find where this Red Skull and Duquesne have stashed the canisters. Hulk, I need you to stay out here to keep smashing. Thor, stay out here and help him. Stark, you're with me. There are plenty more thugs inside and we need to get to Red Skull. Natasha and Hawkeye…"

Clint interrupted, "I'm going after Duquesne. I'm coming with you guys to help take out the rest, but when I find where Jacques is hiding, he's mine."

Tony replied, "That's fine with me. I just want another shot at Ugly. He caught me off guard and I'm not okay with that."

"All right, Hawkeye and Natasha, you're inside as well, but the two of you stay together," Steve agreed. "We need to protect each other's' backs. This mansion's a big place."

"Agreed," Natasha responded as she and Hawkeye ran into the mansion, charging over two dozen soldiers and aliens while firing their weapons, the Widow her guns and Hawkeye his arrows.

Tony watched them as he asked, "Did you notice how Miss. Romanoff appears to be avoiding Clint, both earlier in the conference room, during our ride here, and even now as they've been fighting together?"

Steve looked over at his pestering friend and answered, "Focus, Stark. We've got a villain to find and another battle to win."

"I'm just saying," Tony replied as he flew after Steve, who ran inside the mansion, both taking out more attackers. "Clearly something happened between them when they had their little talk. Oh, and try not to destroy this mansion too badly. I'm thinking I'd like to buy it when we're done here if it's still standing."

After Schmidt had used the scepter to blast Iron Man out of the mansion, Jacques ran off, away from the fight. Red Skull didn't care less as he slowly walked through the mansion and outside the back to where a large rocket stood, prepped and waiting to be launched through the sky. Inside the rocket were two dozen missiles with a canister of the gamma radiation attached to each one, each set to detach from inside the rocket and fly to their designated cities. The villain stood at the controls to the rocket and pushed several buttons to begin the launch. After doing so, Red Skull laughed as he walked back inside and took a seat on his throne to wait for the Avengers to appear before him.

As the rocket fired up, it caused the mansion and the grounds around it to shake, briefly stopping the fight as everyone tried to figure out what was happening. Tony flew out of a hole in the roof he had made earlier as he fired his lasers at two of the aliens that had attacked him by flying off of the large staircase in the mansion's entryway, in order to get a look at what was causing the earthquake, as Steve ran to a window and Thor flew to the back and landed on the mansion's roof.

They watched as the rocket was preparing to fire into the sky and Steve quickly called out over the coms, "That thing probably contains the canisters and if we blow… Stark! Is there anything you can do to stop it?"

Tony quickly responded, "Uh, sorry, Captain. As you said, if I blow it up, the canisters will blow too and the radiation will cover us all. You're definitely right about the canisters. JARVIS is detecting two dozen missiles, each with a canister strapped to its back. There's nothing we can do except… Hulk!"

"I'll tell the big guy, Tony," Natasha answered. "I'm the closest to him."

At that moment, Natasha was fighting off four soldiers on a balcony not too far away from where Hawkeye was busy firing his arrows at a large number of the aliens down below him on the lower level of the mansion's main entryway, as they were both on the second level, then quickly fired an exploding arrow to take out the rest as they were about to overwhelm him and Natasha.

She turned and smiled at Clint after she finished taking out the soldiers, then suddenly took a back dive off of the balcony. As soon as he saw this, Clint ran to the balcony and watched her as she swiftly flipped off of the Hulk and landed securely on her feet right in front of him on the ground. When he saw that she was all right, he turned and ran off to find Jacques.

As she landed facing the Hulk, she quickly put her hands up in defense as he was about to smash her as he did so many of their attackers, but he quickly stopped when he saw that it was his friend and she said, "Hulk, we need you to stop that rocket, but you can't blow it up until it reaches a safe distance in the sky. The canisters are attached to individual missiles ready to disperse to several different locations. If it explodes here, we will die or become like you. Do you understand?"

The Hulk smiled as he suddenly took off fast in the direction of the rocket. He reached it just as it began to ascend into the sky and grabbed a hold of it as it took off. Natasha, Steve, Thor, and Tony all watched this until they could no longer see the rocket and then went back to fighting against what seemed to be a never ending army, led by a mad man. What they didn't get to see, as it was too far away in the sky, was the Hulk as he began to rip the rocket into shreds, causing it to explode just before the missiles could deploy. The Hulk then fell from the sky and eventually landed somewhere, miles from the mansion. The missiles were destroyed in the explosion, as were the canisters of the radiation, saving the lives of everyone down below.

As she continued her fight outside, along with Tony and Thor, and she tried to break through to get back up to where she believed Clint to be, Natasha soon came face to face with two attackers, who were neither alien, nor soldiers, but as they began to fight her while jumping and flipping around, she figured out that these were the two acrobats, who robbed the lab down in Texas along with 'the Swordsman.' The two thought they had the red head agent outnumbered, but Natasha managed to knock them both unconscious in a matter of minutes as she swiftly ran at the man and used her legs to flip him and slam him hard against the ground, then took out the woman as Natasha stood on her hand and did a back flip, kicking the woman hard in the head as she did so. Black Widow smiled as she once again ran into the mansion to find her partner.

As Clint ran through the mansion, taking out any attacker that got in his way, he soon caught up with Captain America as he was fighting off his own men. As they finished, they ran into the main hall, where in front of them sat Red Skull on what appeared to be a throne with the scepter in his hand. Next to him stood an ugly creature that looked to them an awful lot like one of the Chitauri they had fought in their battle against Loki.

Both of them only watched the two Avengers as they approached and when they got closer, Steve suddenly stopped as he recognized their enemy and cried out in surprise, "Schmidt, you're alive? But how…?"

"How am I alive?" the monster before them asked in answer to his question. "I am not sure, but when I disappeared in the tesseract's power, I found myself in space, in another universe."

"You know this guy?" Hawkeye asked as he looked over at their leader.

Steve looked back at his friend as he replied, "Yeah, Red Skull is actually Johann Schmidt, the man I fought right before my plane crash landed in the icy water you guys found me in seventy years later. I thought he was destroyed when he picked up the tesseract cube and disappeared."

Red Skull responded, "Yes, but instead, I have been transformed. I am no longer just a super soldier like you, Captain America. I have more power than I could have ever imagined so long ago. All I had to do was wait for my chance to escape the vastness of space, until I could find my way back here to Earth, where I have begun to rebuild a new HYDRA."

"Sorry to bust up your plans, but we've taken out most of your army already and soon the others will finish the rest," Clint said firmly.

"And the Hulk has no doubt finished blowing up your rocket with the canisters inside by now," Steve added. "You're plan has failed."

The villain answered, "Perhaps, but I can always begin again."

It was then that Jacques suddenly walked back in dressed in his old armor, as he added, "And I will be here to stand by his side."

"How did you become involved with a monster from the Nazi days, Jacques?" Clint asked angrily as he glared at the man from his own past. "I knew that you were sadistic, but I never took you for a fool."

"It doesn't matter," 'the Swordsman' replied as he pulled out two swords and held them up in front of him. "He promised me that I could be the one to kill you and this time, I will not fail."

He screamed as he suddenly charged at Hawkeye, who attempted to fire an arrow at his attacker, but missed. He had once been Hawkeye's mentor and taught him how to fight with a bow and arrows in the first place. This time, 'the Swordsman' was prepared for the archer's attack. Luckily, Clint was able to block the swords from cutting into him as well.

Steve watched as the man in armor made the first attack against his friend, until suddenly he himself was attacked by the creature, which was previously standing beside the Master. Steve managed to dodge the attack and then continued to fight the monster in hand to hand combat. After a few minutes, the creature fired a blast of energy, much like the energy from the tesseract and almost just as strong, from an orb it quickly pulled out from under the cloak it wore.

However, as Steve deflected the blast using his shield to protect himself, the blast bounced back and struck the creature, causing it to rupture and blow apart as it screamed. Steve was surprised and stared at the spot where the creature died, but snapped out of it when Red Skull suddenly attacked him with another blast from the scepter. Steve bolted out of the way just in time and then ran from the room, but not before he quickly looked toward his friend to make sure Hawkeye was doing all right in his own fight.

'The Swordsman' swung his swords, as Hawkeye dodged the blows using his bow to defend himself, then turned the attacks back on him as he tried to strike him down with hits to the face, as the armor made it impossible to hurt him anywhere else. The two were evenly matched as they fought, but soon Hawkeye's adrenaline was slowly beginning to fade and when he saw this, Jacques struck him hard in chest with the hilt of one of the swords, causing the archer to fall back to the ground and cry out as the pain in his ribs came back to the surface with full force.

Jacques began to laugh as he lifted a sword over his head and was about to strike Clint down, until suddenly Captain America's shield suddenly flew into the room, successfully knocking the sword from the circus performer's hands. The distraction was enough for Clint, as he swiftly pulled an arrow from his quiver, tethered it in his bow, and fired, striking Jacques through a small opening in the armor, directly in the side of his chest just under his arm. 'The Swordsman' stood there for a moment with a shocked expression etched across his face, until he suddenly fell to the ground, dead. Clint allowed his head to fall back to the floor as he breathed a sigh of relief and fought to breathe through the pain.

Moments after his shield flew through the room, Steve was being forced backward into the room as he was busy fighting off two of the aliens, as well as the agent, who had betrayed the team days ago. When he had seen that Clint was in trouble from just outside the doorway, he managed to stop the fight long enough to throw his shield to help his friend and then focused back on his own attackers as they continued their bout upon the captain.

Iron Man and Thor both came to their leader's aid in fighting Red Skull, who became distracted and began to fight them instead of the man he truly wanted to kill, but soon the super charged, super soldier managed to fire, what felt to them like a nuclear blast from his scepter that caused all power in Tony's armor to shut down and managed to plunge both him and Thor like rag dolls through the roof, finally landing them in the river several yards from the mansion.

Steve had just finished fighting off his three attackers inside the main room and was about to walk over and help Clint from off the floor, when Schmidt walked back in and fired another blast at Steve once again. The captain managed to get his shield back and up just in time to protect himself from the majority of the strike, but the impact was too much for him to stand his ground, as he flew back into a wall hard, causing him to cry out in pain.

Red Skull ran over quickly and with great strength, grabbed Steve by his neck and lifted him from the ground, as he began to strangle him. Steve fought against his grip, but he had become winded from the impact and was quickly losing strength. Whatever the tesseract had done to Schmidt, he was certainly no longer human, as he had the strength of at least two of the captain.

Suddenly, an arrow struck Red Skull through his chest from behind, fired by Clint. The villain turned his attention on Clint as he fired his scepter at the archer, who swiftly managed to duck out of the way, but the distraction was enough for Steve to kick Schmidt backward, hard enough to toss him through the air, landing a foot away from where Hawkeye stood. However, the monster still held tightly to the scepter and before the archer could bring his bow back up, Red Skull struck his weapon from his hand and thrust the blade end of the scepter deep into Clint's chest, just below his left shoulder, causing a pain filled gasp to escape his lips.

Steve screamed Clint's name as he stood from the ground and rushed over to try to help him, but before he could, Schmidt put up a force field around the two of them as he continued to hold the archer up with the scepter as he kept it in his chest to make him suffer. Steve pounded against the field, hoping his strength would be enough to break it, but all he could do as watch as Clint struggled in the monster's grasp, while the pain and blood loss was slowly killing him. It was then that Steve noticed the device with which Schmidt used to create the field around them.

Red Skull grinned at Steve and then said, "This little device was another trinket delivered to me thanks to another traitor still inside the agency you have foolishly chosen to work for. You ought to be more careful with, who you trust."

Steve answered angrily, "I will kill you!"

"My bow," Clint struggled to say. "The bottom button… on the…handle."

"What?" Steve asked as he was trying to understand what his friend was getting at.

Clint tried again as he replied, "Push it! Kill him."

Steve looked at the tip of the arrow that stuck out from his enemy's chest and realized what Clint was telling him as he looked between his friend and his bow as he picked it up from the ground and responded, "No! I won't kill you too."

It was then that Natasha ran into the room after hearing everything over the coms and as soon as she saw Clint with the sharp end of the scepter inside his chest and stuck inside a force field with their monster, she screamed out his name and ran forward to try find a way to help him.

"There is nothing either of you can do to kill me, you fool!" Schmidt sneered into Clint's ear as he pushed the scepter deeper into the archer's chest, causing him to cry out louder than before. "This is your eleventh hour, Captain, but this time, there is nothing you can do, but watch in horror as I finish off your friend. Then, I will kill you and the woman. There is another in space, who has a lust for death even stronger than I have and when I am through with each of you, I will release him from his prison and set him loose on the weaklings that you all have to come to here to try to protect."

"Hulk, smash!" the hulk shouted as he suddenly charged into the room through a wall and pounded his fists against the force field, shattering its power, then knocked Red Skull high into the air to shove him away from his friend, who quickly collapsed, as the scepter fell from the wound in his chest, landing on the ground beside him.

As soon as the Hulk attacked, Steve shouted for Natasha to cover Clint and quickly hit the button on the archer's bow as he, followed by the Hulk, suddenly dove over the both of them, as the arrow blew up along with Red Skull still in the air. The monster was finally dead and so were most of the soldiers and aliens that fought with him. Those that were still alive, were either unconscious or they ran off.

As Thor and Tony, who was no longer wearing his armor, finally made it back to the mansion, they heard the explosion coming from the main room and ran to make sure their teammates were all right, but as soon as they came into the room, they found Clint lying on the floor severely injured with a deep hole in his chest and Natasha holding him tightly in her arms as tears flowed down her face, no longer caring that they all could see her emotions, while Steve, who had pulled off his mask, held his hands over the wound to try to stop the heavy flow of blood as it trickled out between his fingers. The Avengers had won another battle, but this time, a high price had been paid, as one of their own was now fighting to stay alive.

Steve saw them as they ran in and quickly shouted, "Call Fury and tell him to get a medical team here right away! He's hurt bad."

Tony spoke to JARVIS through the coms, ordering his computer system to make the call to Fury aboard the Helicarrier, then slowly walked over and picked up the scepter from the ground and saw that it was obviously the weapon that had impaled their friend as he stared at the blood smeared on the end.

Thor also walked over to them and took the scepter from Tony's hands, then moved away from them and placed back down on the ground a safe distance away, as he softly said, "This scepter will no longer cause pain for anyone else, ever again."

Suddenly, Thor lifted his hammer and with great force, slammed it down on the jewel inside its head, causing the weapon to burst and shatter into millions of fragments, then looked down sadly at his friend and spoke softly, "I am sorry, Clint Barton."

"I need you to stay with me, Clint," Natasha whispered as she leaned down by his face and gently stroked his cheek, while he struggled to keep his eyes on her. "You can't die on me. I need you. I… I love you too."

"You wait… til now… to tell me?" he fought to say as he smiled up at her and lifted his hand to her cheek to wipe away a tear.

A small laugh escaped her mouth as she took a hold of his hand on her face and gently squeezed it for comfort, then she looked over at Steve, who remained quiet as he and the others looked down on the two assassins sadly. The Hulk finally began to shrink down as he soon became Bruce Banner again and once he was, he pushed through Tony and Thor, than moved Steve aside in order to take over for the captain, while they continued to wait for the Helicarrier to arrive with the medical team.

It was then, that Nick Fury's voice suddenly came over the coms as he said, "We received your message, Stark and we've arrived. A medical team should be with you momentarily."

Bruce replied in frustration, "They better hurry it up, Fury. Hawkeye's not going to last much longer. He's lost too much blood and has sustained too many wounds."

"Understood, Doctor," the director responded.

"Hang in there, Clint," Steve whispered as the medics finally ran inside the room and to their fallen comrade. "Just hold on."

Back aboard the Helicarrier…

Steve, Tony, and Thor all sat at the table inside their briefing room, as Director Fury stood and looked down at the three members of his team and asked, "So, what finally happened in the end?"

Steve looked up at the director and answered, "Clint saved my life. That's what happened. And it was thanks to him that we were able to finally defeat Schmidt, or Red Skull. He was willing to die to stop him. We were lucky that Bruce came in when he did, or I wouldn't have had a choice, but to push that button on his bow."

"You mean the button that activated the arrow to blow apart with it inside of him?" Fury asked again.

"Yes, Sir," Tony replied solemnly. "If you had any question as to Hawkeye's loyalty to this team, I'd say that he more than proved it tonight. Now, if you'll excuse me, I'm going to join Miss. Romanoff and Dr. Banner in the med bay."

Steve and Thor both stood and followed after Tony as the director remained behind and said to himself, "I believe you're right, Tony. I do believe you're right."

That night as the teammates gathered together to wait for an update from the doctors on Clint's condition, they went over everything that had happened amongst themselves. As they did, they realized they had one more piece of unfinished business as Steve and Tony walked into Fury's office to explain to the director that there was still one more traitor that needed to be dealt with.

Schmidt had said that the traitor had given him Tony's only working prototype of his force field gadgets. After their mission at the company where the team brought down the thugs, who had taken several people hostage, Tony had handed over the device to only one man once they arrived back at the bunker; Agent Stanton. The man tried to run as he discovered he had been found out, but he was easily caught and arrested. Fury promised Steve and Tony that he would never try to replace Agent Coulson again after this.

They also had gone on to explain to the director that there was a new threat that was going to arise one day with the same thirst for death as their latest enemy had, but the man firmly stated that he dared the next villain to come and try to take them down. Tony couldn't help, but smile at Fury's audacity.

It was days later that Clint finally awoke on a bed inside the medical bay aboard the Helicarrier. Natasha was there, sitting beside him on his bed, as she gently rubbed her hand along the right side of his face after he finally focused at her. She smiled down at him, then slowly leaned in and kissed him on his lips. Clint was surprised by the gesture, but didn't fight it as he kissed her back.

She was the first to speak up after she pulled back as she continued to look down at him and said, "I knew you wouldn't die on me. I should kill you for scaring us all like you did. Don't you ever think that your life isn't worth living ever again. Do you hear me?"

Clint softly answered, "I had no choice. I had to do something to help Steve. He was in trouble. I had to try to make things right. For what it's worth, I wasn't expecting the monster to run me through with the scepter. I… The scepter! Is it…?"

"It's been destroyed," she replied swiftly as he began to rise in panic. "Thor shattered it into fragments with is hammer. Just lie still before you hurt yourself again. You've got a large hole in your chest still, several broken ribs, and other various cuts and scrapes. You're in no condition to move from this spot. I promise you, you've done far more than just wipe your ledger clean."

"And the others?" Clint asked again as he settled back against the bed. "Is everyone all right?"

Natasha responded, "Everyone's fine; thanks to you. Steve has been here several times to watch over you, when I couldn't be. He said that he's been anxiously waiting for you to get better so that you can finally teach him how you shoot like you do with your bow. Bruce has also been taking care of you, as he was angry with the carelessness of the other doctors around here. We all thought he was going to Hulk out once or twice. Tony's been in and out. He finally proposed to Pepper and he actually bought the mansion and is working to remodel it for a place where we can all assemble before all of our missions, instead of at the bunker."

Clint looked at her and asked, "Are you kidding?"

"Unfortunately no," Natasha answered. "He said that there will be a room there for the both of us, seeing as neither of us don't actually have a place outside of the bunker. Thor will be staying there as well. Unfortunately, he has no way of returning to Asgard until his people can fix the bridge that connects our world to his, but he's actually somewhat happy. Right now, he's off visiting Jane Foster, as well as Dr. Selvig, who has been there visiting her since our fight with Loki."

"What is it, Natasha?" Clint asked as she turned away and he noticed her face become solemn.

She looked back at him as she replied, "Loki is the monster that started all of this and we don't get to see him get punished for what he did; for what he did to you. When he made his threats against all of us and the entire world, as I interrogated him for the information we needed, the only thing I could think about was saving you. A part of me was willing to give up everything else, just to save you. I was raised to believe that love is for children and that idea had been drilled into my head since I can remember. When I realized I had more than just a deep seeded sense of loyalty to you, I became unsure of, who I was and when you told me you loved me, I got scared."

Clint nodded as he understood and responded, "Believe me, Natasha, if anyone understands how you feel, it's me. I'm a trained assassin just like you and I know that falling in love is against our code of rules, but I'm not going to go on pretending that I'm not in love with you. I can't."

"Does this mean that you're not leaving again after you're fully healed?" she asked.

"Not if you're willing to give in and if you're willing to help me to stop fighting with myself over the things I've done," Clint answered as she smiled down at him, then leaned down, and kissed him once again.

As she finished, she gently lay her body down in the bed beside him, where the two of them remained in each other's arms, as they slowly fell asleep. In the days that followed, the man, who was usually obnoxious, pretty much about everything, had not once teased Clint or Natasha about their new relationship status; at least not to their faces. Everyone knew they were together, but they didn't ever show it when anyone was around, even their teammates, and especially not on missions. They kept it that way so that their enemies could not use it against them.

Yes, the Avengers had saved the world yet again and this time, the public never learned of what this team had done for them. However, that was all right with everyone, even Tony. The council still managed to find something they disagreed with in the results of the battle, but as usual, Nick Fury shrugged it off and cut them off. No matter what anyone else ever said about the Avengers; to him, they were heroes and no one was a match against them.

The End


End file.
